Geology of the Falcón Basin (NW Venezuela)

<p>This paper presents a geological map and cross-section of the Falcón Basin based both on published and unpublished work and on new data collected in the northern and southern basin margins. The geological map covers an area of 4600 km² at 1:100,000 scale. The cross-section is oriented NNW-SSE, traversing perpendicular to the main structures. In general, the structure of the study area results from the inversion of a graben (Oligocene-early Miocene back-arc basin), that started in the middle Miocene due to the convergence between the Caribbean and South American plates. The map, the cross-section and the observations made in the field have been used to generate a tectonostratigraphic reconstruction of the Falcón Basin. The Oligocene-early Miocene sedimentary succession mapped and described is relevant to the hydrocarbon exploration in the Caribbean and in the Gulf of Venezuela, where new hydrocarbon resources have recently been discovered (i.e. Perla gas field).</p

Rare-Earth Monopnictide Alloys for Tunable, Epitaxial, Designer Plasmonics

We demonstrate that plasmonic response can be tuned spectrally via the alloy composition of an epitaxial semimetallic film. Specifically, attenuated total reflectance studies show that the surface plasmon resonance of rare-earth monopnictide La_<i>x</i>Lu_1–<i>x</i>As alloy films can be tuned across the mid-IR, while lattice-matching to technologically important substrates. The electrical properties are a strong function of the composition, which, in turn, manifests as tunability of the optical properties. The ability to produce tunable (semi)­metals that can be epitaxially integrated with III–V emitters and absorbers is expected to enable a new generation of novel nanophotonic device architectures and functionality