Influence of Morphology on the Optical Properties of Metal Nanoparticles

The influence of morphology on the optical properties of silver nanoparticles is studied. A general relationship between the surface plasmon resonances and the morphology of each nanoparticle is established. The optical response is investigated for cubes and decahedrons with different truncations. We found that polyhedral nanoparticles composed with less faces show more surface plasmon resonances than spherical-like ones. It is also observed that the vertices of the nanoparticles play an important role in the optical response, because the sharpener they become, the greater the number of resonances. For all the nanoparticles, a main resonance with a dipolar character was identified as well as other secondary resonances of less intensity. It is also found that as the nanoparticle becomes more symmetric, the main resonance is always blue shifted.