Ultraviolet plasmonics (UV) has become an active topic of research due to the new challenges arising in fields such as biosensing, chemistry or spectroscopy. Recent studies have pointed out aluminum, gallium, magnesium and rhodium as promising candidates for plasmonics in the UV range. Aluminum and magnesium present a high oxidation tendency that has a critical effect in their plasmonic performance. Nevertheless, gallium and rhodium have drawn a lot of attention because of their low tendency of oxidation and, at the same time, good plasmonic response in the UV and excellent photocatalytic properties. Here, we present a short overview of the current state of UV plasmonics with the latest findings in the plasmonic response and applications of aluminum, gallium, magnesium and rhodium nanoparticles.

We have studied the problem of light scattering by an ensemble of dipoles with both electric and magnetic polarizabilities. Using the coupled electric and magnetic dipole method as the formal base, we have generalized the eigenvector decomposition of the local dipole moments previously derived for purely electric particles to the case of both electric and magnetic dipoles. We have analyzed the properties of eigenvalues and eigenvectors in the most elementary case of two particles. In the purely electric case, the eigenvalues correspond to the resonance modes of the system due to the electromagnetic coupling of its components. For a two-dipole system with both electric and magnetic responses, purely electric, purely magnetic, and mixed states can be distinguished. The resonance spectrum is analyzed as a function of the magnetic permeability, and it is shown that the latter can be fitted quite accurately by the eigenmode decomposition.

Since the first studies made by Kerker in the 1970s stating the conditions for null light scattering in certain directions by particles, such conditions have remained unquestioned. The increasing interest in scattering directionality by tuning the optical properties of materials demands a new analysis of this problem. In addition, as has been shown recently, one of Kerker’s statements does not comply with the optical theorem. We propose corrected expressions for the null-scattering conditions that satisfy the optical theorem.

Lorenz–Mie resonances produced by small spheres are analyzed as a function of their size and optical properties ($\epsilon \gtrless 0$, $\mu \gtrless 0$). New generalized $(\mu \ne 1)$ approximate and compact expressions of the first four Lorenz–Mie coefficients ($a_1$, $b_1$, $a_2$, and $b_2$) are calculated. With these expressions and for small particles with various values of ε and μ, the extinction cross section $\left(Q_{\mathit{ext}}\right)$ is calculated and analyzed, in particular for resonant conditions. The dependence on particle size of the extinction resonance, together with the resonance shape (FWHM), is also analyzed. In addition to the former analysis, a study of the scattering diagrams for some interesting values of ε and μ is also presented.