Plasmonic manipulation of color and morphology of single silver nanospheres

Optical control of size, shape, or orientation of a metal nanoparticle is important for development of nanoscale optical devices and elements of photonic circuits. Thus far, however, independent control of two or more parameters has not yet been achieved. Here we place a simple spherical Ag nanoparticle on TiO(2) with high refractive index and separate a plasmon mode localized at the Ag-TiO(2) interface from the other mode distributed over the nanoparticle. Selective excitation of each mode gives rise to a corresponding morphological change and selective suppression of the plasmon mode, resulting in multicolor changes of scattering light from orange to red, green, or a dark color.