(a) Schematic of a spherical Ag nanoparticle with the radius of 100 nm under illumination of circularly polarized light. The incident light propagates along the z-axis, the wavelength is 671 nm. Under (b) LCP and (c) RCP illumination, P^O and S of the scattering light displayed at the x–y plane crossing the spherical surface. The origin locates at the center of the sphere. r is the radial vector. The red color in the sphere represents the positive charge distribution, and the blue the negative charge distribution. The black (green) arrows indicate the direction of P^O (S).