Excerpts of my work and publications are listed below. Some of the pre-2015 articles can be found as a downloadable .pdf on the groups homepage under publications.

Articles in preparation

  • "Distorted projections of artificial halos", M. Selmke
  • several on bubble optics in more complex situations

Journal Articles

I have been fortunate enough to get some of my article's figures on the cover of Applied Optics and the American Journal of Physics (more on this wonderful journal at the bottom of this page):

"Bubble optics: Upward emerging ray paths", Applied Optics (Appl. Opt.), Vol.60(29), 9188-9199, M. Selmke, J.A. Lock2021.

 

A study on the reflection by floating bubbles and the associated caustics based on numerical and analytical methods.

"Bubble Optics: Leonardo’s cross revisited: Part 1, numerical methods", Applied Optics (Appl. Opt.), Vol.60(21), 6213-6225, M. Selmke, J.A. Lock2021.

 

A study based on numerical ray tracing of floating bubbles and their assiciated surprisingly rich light patterns (including caustics) below them.

The article provides the Cover image for the July 20th 2021 issue of the tri-monthly Applied Optics journal.

Caption: "Large bubble floating on water, illuminated obliquely by sunlight late in the afternoon. Various caustics appear and change with the water depth to form a multi-component light pattern known as Leonardo’s cross. For details, see the three-part paper by Selmke and Lock, pp. 6213–6242."

link to OSA's tweet.

The article was highlighted by the Editor of the journal (Applied Optics) as an "Editor's Pick".

According to the journal, this serves to highlight articles with excellent scientific quality which are representative of the work taking place in a specific field.

"Bubble Optics: Leonardo’s cross revisited: Part 2, paraxial analytical methods", Applied Optics (Appl. Opt.), Vol.60(21), 6226-6234, J.A. Lock, M. Selmke, 2021.

 

Study of approximations to the bubble refraction problem (astroid component of Leonardo's cross) using paraxial analytical methods.

"Bubble Optics: Leonardo’s cross revisited: Part 3, non-paraxial analytical methods", Applied Optics (Appl. Opt.), Vol.60(21), 6235-6242, J.A. Lock, M. Selmke2021.

 

Study of approximations to the bubble refraction problem (astroid component of Leonardo's cross) as well as one of the magically matching extra cusp using non-paraxial analytical methods.

"An optical n-body gravitational lens analogy", American Journal of Physics (Am. J. Phys.) Vol. 89, 11-20, 2021. preprint: arXiv:1911.03921 [physics.ed-ph]

 

A new type of multi-component gravitational lens experiment using liquid menisci around small objects. The article includes a brief review of the history of gravitational lens analogies in classical (refractive) optics. 

A figure of the article was chosen for the cover image of the January 2021 issue in which the article is published.

The figure shows the fundamental idea underlying the article.

"Ground rainbows: A cautionary tale for authors and editors alike", Physics Teacher (Phys. Teach.) Vol. 58, 372, 2020.

 

A comment on literature review, twitter and ground rainbows.

 

"Optical Caustics of Multiple Objects in Water: Two Vertical Rods and Normally Incident Light", Applied Optics (Appl. Opt.), Vol.59(26), 7981-7993, M. Selmke, J.A. Lock2020.

 

In investigation, theoretical and experimental, of the caustic metamorphosis of the caustic associated with two close-by water surface perturbations. E.g. two vertical rods standing in water or two bubbles.

"Bubble optics", Applied Optics (Appl. Opt.), Vol. 59(1), 45-58, M. Selmke2020.

preprint: arXiv:1909.04401 [physics.optics]

 

The manuscript describes the optical properties (in GO) of floating bubbles, including their relation to common axicons, the shadow sausage effect, gravitational lensing and other natural caustics with a similar unfolded axial line caustic (astroid shape).

 

correction: p.5, Section 6, the magnification M misses a factor (1/n). It should read correctly: M=-d_i/d_o*(1/n).

 

related: "Optics & Photonics News": Image of the week 19-09-16 / OSA-OPN tweet / OSA facebook post / instagram post.

 

 

The article was highlighted by the Editor of the journal (Applied Optics) as an "Editor's Pick".

According to the journal, this serves to highlight articles with excellent scientific quality which are representative of the work taking place in a specific field.

OSA Publishing Twitter Post

"Halo in the box: a macroscopic crystal arrangement to project mosaic halos", Applied Optics (Appl. Optics), Vol. 57(29), 8614-8623, M. Selmke and S. Selmke, 2018.

 

Similar to the "rainbox in the box" (see below), this paper describes in detail the construction and experiments with a Parry-halo box built from tiny hexagonal glass prisms. The article also studies virtual halo boxes (orientation classes: Parry, column, plate, Lowitz, random) via raytracing experiments.

The article provides the Cover image for the October 10th 2018 issue of the tri-monthly Applied Optics journal.

Caption: "Artificial cirrus cloud, consisting of 45 hexagonal glass prisms arranged in a 3D volume,

used to project mosaic Parry halos upon illumination. For details, see Selmke and Selmke, pp. 8614–8623."

link to OSA's tweet.

"Wine glass caustic and halo analogies", Applied Optics (Appl. Optics), Vol. 57(19), 5259-5267, M. Selmke, 2018.

 

An investigation of a particular hour-glass-shaped wine glass caustic using geometrical optics. The study provides results using an analytical description (using analogies to certain halos: Parry arc and circumzenithal arc) as well as raytracing parameter studies using Blender.

The article was highlighted by the Editor of the journal (Applied Optics) as an "Editor's Pick".

According to the journal, this serves to highlight articles with excellent scientific quality which are representative of the work taking place in a specific field.

link to OSA's tweet.

"Theory for controlling individual self-propelled micro-swimmers by photon nudging I: directed transport", Phys. Chem. Chem. Phys. (PCCP), Vol. 20, 10502-10520, M. Selmke, U. Khadka, A. Bregulla, F. Chichos and H. Yang, 2018.

 

This article is the first part of a two-part foundational theory contribution to the stochastic localization and voyaging scheme called "Photon-Nudging". Part I focuses on the time-statistics and derives mean velocities under the stochastic driving. Optimization is performed for the time of travel to a distant target location.

"Theory for controlling individual self-propelled micro-swimmers by photon nudging II: confinement", Phys. Chem. Chem. Phys. (PCCP), Vol. 20, 10521-10532, M. Selmke, U. Khadka, A. Bregulla, F. Chichos and H. Yang, 2018.

 

This article is the second part of a two-part foundational theory contribution to the stochastic localization and voyaging scheme called "Photon-Nudging". Part II focuses on the spatial statistics of a localized swimmer in a mean-field model. Optimization is performed for the localization precision around a target location.

"The rainbow in the box", American Journal of Physics (Am. J. Phys.), Vol. 86(4), 316-318, M. Selmke and S. Selmke, 2018.

 

We describe a novel demonstration experiment highlighting the collective-scattering and observer-specific aspects of the rainbow phenomena. Throughout a volume of a small box we randomly placed 50 acrylic spheres on black carbon fibre pillars. Under illumination of parallel white light and defocused observation under an angle of about 24° (the primary rainbow caustic angle for acrylic glass) segments of the artificial mosaic rainbow appear.

"A Note on the history of gravity tunnels", American Journal of Physics (Am. J. Phys.), Vol. 86(2), 153, M. Selmke, 2018.

 

A short comment on the legacy of gravity tunnels research / thought-experiments in the light of missing historical references in several published articles in the Am. J. Phys.

"Revisiting the round bottom flask rainbow experiment", American Journal of Physics (Am. J. Phys.), Vol. 86(1), 14-21, M. Selmke and S. Selmke, 2018.

 

This article describes in detail the phenomena connected with a common rainbow demonstration experiment, the so-called Florence(-flask) rainbow. Wall thickness related effects are treated as well as the rainbow from a water glass under inclined illumination.

A figure of the article was chosen for the Cover image of the January 2018 issue in which the article is published.

The figure shows a photograph of the Florence flask experiment we did. Visible is Alexander's bright band (yes, bright),

as well as the splitting of the primary rainbow order due to the flask wall.

"Thermal Diffusivities Studied by Single-Particle Photothermal Deflection Microscopy", ACS Photonics, A. Heber, M. Selmke, and F. Cichos2017.

 

This article discusses the application of the Photothermal Rutherford Deflection technique to the measurement of thermal diffusivities. In particular, deflection resonances caused by the pseudo-wave of the nano-scopic refractive index lens are probed as predicted by the theory outlined earlier in "Photothermal single particle microscopy using a single laser beam", Applied Physics Letters (Appl. Phys. Lett.).

"Artificial circumzenithal and circumhorizontal arcs", American Journal of Physics (Am. J. Phys.), Vol. 85(8), 575-581, M. Selmke and S. Selmke, 2017.

(preprint: arXiv.org > Physics > Atmospheric and Oceanic Physics > arXiv:1608.08664)

 

We describe a simple set of experiments which use a glass of water only. We show that they reproduce the circumzenithal, circumhorizontal and suncave Parry arcs, see the physics at home section. Although the experiment itself has been known at least since 1920 (see "Gilbert light experiments for boys", p. 98, Experiment No. 94), or the numerous google search results for "glass water table rainbow", it has often been put in the wrong context of a rainbow. We re-derive the main characteristics of the observed natural and artificial phenomena.

 

Leonardo Da Vinci also described this experiment: Anatomical Drawings at Winsor, 0118-r (ca. 1485 - 1510-15 / accessible in the e-Leo archive of the Biblioteca Leonardiana of Vinci).

A figure of the article was chosen for the Cover image of the August Issue in which the article is published.

The figure shows a photograph of a natural circumzenithal arc ice halo and the recreation via an illuminated glass of water.

(also shared on Am. J. Phys.' Facebook page)

_pdf_archive_AJPIAS_vol_85_iss_8_575_1.p
Adobe Acrobat Dokument 4.7 MB

"Complex artificial halos for the classroom", American Journal of Physics (Am. J. Phys.), Vol. 84(7), 561-564, M. Selmke and S. Selmke2016.

 

The article describes the construction and operation of a small modular halo machine (see physics at home section) and how to use it to generate artificial Lowitz-, tangential /circumscribed, Parry halos and (sub-)parhelias / the parhelic circle. Finally, a method of generating complex composite displays is described, and how to emulate the sky sphere. (Note: we used a 20mW blue laser diode)

 

see also the BoredPanda.com article for many more pictures.

Selmke2016_AJP_HaloMachines.pdf
Adobe Acrobat Dokument 1.5 MB

"The physics of the photothermal detection of single absorbing nano-objects: a review", ArXiv, M. Selmke and F. Cichos, 2015. (to be submitted)

 

A comprehensive review of the existing models on the photothermal signal generation mechanism, including new results on the signal modification above interfaces.

"Intensity distribution of the parhelic circle and embedded parhelia at zero solar elevation: theory and experiments", Applied Optics (Appl. Opt.), Vol. 54, Issue 22, 6608-6615, S. Borchardt and M. Selmke2015.
The article disseminates the parhelic circle (PHC) halo intensity distribution at zero solar elevation. Various azimuthal positions of characteristic features (Liljequist PH, 120° PH, 90° PH of 1st and 2nd order, round trip halos, blue edges) are given and compared to experimental data obtained using a rotating BK7 glass prism. Finite solar elevations may be incorporated using Bravais' index of refraction for inclined rays, see the article "Artificial Halos".
Borchardt_ao-54-22-6608.pdf
Adobe Acrobat Dokument 1.3 MB

"Artificial Halos", American Journal of Physics (Am. J. Phys.), Vol. 83(9), 751-760, M. Selmke2015.

 

The article gives an introduction to ice halos and describes various experiments which artificially generate certain halos using a glass prism commercially available through Edmund Optics. Artificial Parhelic Circles and various Parhelia along with responsible ray paths are discussed in detail. The article also describes an artificial 22° ring halo machine (a random reorientation device based on an Arduino microcontroller and 3 steppermotors, see below).

A figure of the article was chosen for the Cover image of the September issue in which the article is published. The image shows an illuminated  transparent acrylic juggle ball with its corresponding caustic and an illuminated hexagonal BK7 glass prism with vividly colored columns of light emerging from it.

 

 

The halo articles were covered in a University Press article. It has been reproduced on the Faculty homepage, and various other news sources online such as myscience.deinnovations-report.deinformationsdienst Wissenschaftpro-physik.de. The article appeared in the Leipziger Volkszeitung / LVZ, issue 01/09/2015, page 15, see article in the LVZ online archive. It also  appeared printed in the magazine "Liebigstraße aktuell", issue 18/2015.

==== Arduino machine: Source Code / Instructions ====

Selmke2015_AmJPhys_ArtificialHalos.pdf
Adobe Acrobat Dokument 2.9 MB

"Hot Brownian motion and photophoretic self-propulsion", diffusion-fundamentals.org Vol. 23(1), 1-19, R. Schachoff, M. Selmke, A. Bregulla, F. Cichos, D. Rings, D. Chakraborty, K. Kroy, K. Günther, A. Henning-Knechtel, E. Sperling, M. Mertig2015.

 

Article summarizing the progress within the SFG Research Unit FOR 877, "From Local Constraints to Macroscopic Transport". It covers hot Brownian motion, photothermal correlation spectroscopy and microscopy as well as artificial swimmers, amongst other topics.

"Thermal diffusivity measured with a single plasmonic nanoparticle", Physical Chemistry Chemical Physics (PCCP), accepted, A. Heber, M. Selmke, F. Cichos, 2015.

 

This article presents measurements of thermal diffusivities of liquids and solids based upon frequency-dependent photothermal microscopy. See also [Appl. Phys. Lett. 105, 0135011, M. Selmke et al., 2014].

"Mie scattering by a refractive 1/r inhomogeneity: electromagnetic scattering by the infinite Coulomb-like scatterer", Journal of Quantitative Spectroscopy & Radiative Transfer (JQSRT, special issue on accompanying the LIP2014 conference), 162, 175-183, M. Selmke, 2015.

 

This is a theoretical study of the plane wave scattering characteristics for weak electromagnetic scattering by a 1/r refractive index inhomogeneity. Shaped beams are shown to resolve the divergences known from Coulomb scattering.

"Comment on: "Optimal detection angle in sub-diffraction resolution photothermal microscopy: application for high sensitivity imaging of biological tissues""Optics Express (Opt. Express) Vol. 23, Issue 5, p. 6747-6750, M. Selmke and F. Cichos, 2015 (republished: Virtual Journal for Biomedical Optics, Vol. 10, Issue 4, 2015)

 

This comment points out several fundamental misconceptions in the theoretical treatment of the photothermal signal as done in the article [Opt. Express, Vol. 22, Issue 16, p. 18833–18842, Miyazaki et al.,2014]. 

The reply to the comment, [Opt. Express, Miyazaki et al., Vol. 23, Issue 5, p. 6751-6753, 2015], suggests that the weakness of the scattering resolves the inconsistencies. This is not accurate and misses the points raised in the original comment.

"Photothermal single particle microscopy using a single laser beam", Applied Physics Letters (Appl. Phys. Lett.), Vol. 105, 0135011, M. Selmke, A. Heber, M. Braun, F. Cichos, 2014

 

The article introduces a variant of photothermal microscopy for which only a single laser beam is necessary. The method rests on a detailed understanding of the frequency-dependence and phase of the signal.

"Energy-Redistribution Signitarures in Transmission microscopy of Rayleigh and Mie particles", Journal of the Optical Society of America A (JOSA A), Vol. 31, No. 11, pp 2370-2384, M. Selmke and F. Cichos, 2014 (republished in the Virtual Journal for Biomedical Optics, Vol. 9, Issue 13, 2014)

 

This article describes in detail the interaction of a focused beam with a spherical particle of arbitrary size and refractive index. Particularly, the transmitted power is considered. The special case of small Rayleigh-paticles gives an extension of the optical theorem and provides useful expressions for photothermal microscopy and high frequencies.

"Metal nanoparticle based all-optical photothermal modulator", ACS Nano, Vol. 8, No. 2, pp 1893-1898, A. Heber, M. Selmke, F. Cichos, 2013.

 


The article describes how the photothermal effect may be utilized to modulate light by light without non-linearities. Driving a liquid-crystalline first-order phase transition allows to modulate the probe beam effectively via the dissipative heating of a gold nanoparticle using a heating laser.

"Photothermal single particle Rutherford scattering microscopy", Physical Review Letters, (Phys. Rev. Lett.), Vol. 110, 103901, M. Selmke, F. Cichos, 2013.

 

The letter-format short article presents a new interpretation and detection scheme in transmission photothermal detection based on an optical analogon to quantum mechanical Coulomb / Rutherford scattering of matter wave-packets.

The article was promoted by the editors of the journal and carries the label "editors suggestion".

"Photonic Rutherford Scattering: A Classical and Quantum mechanical analogy in Ray- and Wave-optics", American Journal of Physics (Am. J. Phys.), Vol. 81, No. 6, pp 405-413, M. Selmke and F. Cichos2013.

 

This padagogical article explores the analogy between the optical scattering by a thermal lens and the particle scattering from a Coulomb potential. The analogy is discussed in the high and low energy limit.

An image from the supplementary media files to the article was chosen as the cover figure for the June 2013 issue of the Amercian Journal of Physics

The supplementary files are free and can be found uder "Article Objects (20)" → "Supplementary Files (EPAPS)"

Download the article as a .pdf-file
Selmke2013_AJP.pdf
Adobe Acrobat Dokument 3.4 MB

I have defended my PhD thesis on Monday 7th October 2013, and received my PhD on October 14th. The title is 

"Photothermal Single Particle Detection in Theory & Experiments".

 

The thesis gives a complete account of the photothermal signal of single particles in transmission-type photothermal microscopes. It consistently combines various theoretical approaches and gives several applications and experimental proof-of-principles. You may find it:

 

published online, downloadable as a .pdf-file.

"Photothermal Signal Distribution Analysis (PhoSDA)", Physical Chemistry Chemical Physics (PCCP), Vol. 15, pp. 4250-4257, M. Selmke, R. Schachoff, M. Braun, F. Cichos, 2013. (advance article)

 

In this methodological article the signal statistics for the photothermal signal are discussed for solutions of absorbing nano-particles.

"Twin-Focus Photothermal Correlation Spectroscopy", RSC Advances (RSC Adv.), Vol. 3, pp. 394-400, M. Selmke, R. Schachoff, M. Braun, F. Cichos, 2013

 

A methodological article on the correlation spectroscopy of diffusing particles detected by photothermal microscopy. It specifically used the novel twin-focus split detection volume.

"Gaussian Beam Photothermal Single Particle Microscopy" (oa), Journal of the Optical Society of America A (JOSA A), Vol. 29, No.10, pp. 2237-2241, M. Selmke, M. Braun, F. Cichos, 2012.

 

A theoretical article developing a simple beam transformation formalism for Gaussian beams probing a thermal lens in photothermal microscopy. Analytical in nature, it allows the interpretation of the photothermal signal to originating from a lensing action.

"Nano-lens Diffraction around a Single Heated Nano Particle", Optics Express (Opt. Express), Vol. 20, No. 7, pp. 8055-8070, M. Selmke, M. Braun, F. Cichos, 2012, 

same article republished in the Virtual Journal for Biomedical Optics, Vol. 7, Iss. 52012.

 

This article describes a simple model based on the solution to the paraxial Helmholtz equation (i.e. Kirchhoff-Fresnel diffraction) for a Gaussian beam scattered by a thermal lens. The photothermal signal is shown to be aperture dependent and invertable.

 

ERRATA: "Nano-lens Diffraction around a Single Heated Nano Particle: errata",Optics Express (Opt. Express), Vol. 21, No. 21, pp. 25344-25345

"Photothermal Single Particle Microscopy: Detection of a Nanolens",  ACS Nano, Vol. 6, No. 3, pp 2741–2749, M. Selmke, M. Braun, F. Cichos, 2012.

 

This article gives the first theoretical and quantitative description of the photothermal signal of single absorbing nano-particles. The thermal lens is demonstrated to act as a lens and is treated in a rigorous Lorenz-Mie scattering framework including focusing with aberrations.

"Temperature dependent Single Molecule Rotational Dynamics in PMA", Physical Chemistry Chemical Physics (PCCP), Vol. 13, 1849-1856, S. Adhikari, M. Selmke and F. Cichos, 2011.

 

This article gives, through experimental results compared to a new model, evidence for dynamical heterogeneity in polymers near the glass-transition temperature.

"Theory of Hot Brownian Motion", Soft Matter, Vol. 7, 3441-3452, D. Rings, M. Selmke, F. Cichos and K. Kroy2011.

 

This theoretical article gives the details behind the theory of hot Brownian motion.

"Hot Brownian Motion", Physical Review Letters (Phys. Rev. Lett.), 105, 090604, D. Rings, R. Schachoff, M. Selmke, F. Cichos, K. Kroy2010.

 

A letter-format short article introducing hot Brownian motion and the basic theoretical concepts describing it.

"Measuring Flow Profiles and Slip by Single Molecule Tracking Experiments in Thin Liquid Films", The Journal of Physical Chemistry C (J. Phys. Chem. C), Vol. 114 (10), pp 4479-4485,A. Schob, M. Pumpa, M. Selmke and F. Cichos, 2010.

 

In this article, the diffusion characteristics of single tracked particles in a periodically sheared thin film are discussed based on experimental results and compared to theory.

"Papas Pfannekuchen", Pnemologische Leckerbissen, pp 63-64, Markus Selmke, ca. 1993.

 

This is a pancake recipe.

Given Talks

Poster Presentations

These posters have been presented on the DPG meetings and on various symposia and international conferences (SFG, hot nanoparticles)

Miscellaneous

  • OSA's twitter account published a tweet with the cover of the halo box paper:
  • OSA's tweet on the Wine glass caustic article:
  • "Building Bridges, Connecting Arcs", Joshua Harvey (UK, Oxford), blog entry. This post explores the connection between the author's studies on Robert Grosseteste's treaty "De iride" (13th century) and the caustic experiment described in the Am. J. Phys. article on artificial circumzenithal and circumhorizontal arcs.
  • Illustrated article on BoredPanda about the Halo-Machine and the spherical projection screen experiments.
  • Episode 5 of the BBC documentary series "World's Weirdest Events" featured the same BK7 glass crystal I have used for the two publications in Am. J. Phys. and Appl. Opt. (see list above). The segment starts at around 45 mins (watch it on youtube) into the hour-long episode and shows some footage of the 22° halo and sundogs. The presenter of the show, Chris Packham (see image on the right), uses the crystal to explain the refraction aspect of the phenomenon. Unfortunately, the sundog formation explanation is misleading / faulty and suggests the alignment of plate crystals in a layer. The correct explanation can be found on www.atoptics.co.uk.


               The article appeared printed in the magazine "Liebigstraße aktuell", issue 18/2015, see image on the right.

     An article related to that press release was published in the local newspaper, i.e. the Leipziger Volkszeitung / LVZ, issue 01/09/2015, page 15,

          see article in the LVZ online archive. 

  • My image of Kelvin Helmholtz instabilities was posted on the facebook page of the Nasa's Earth Observatory.
  • Beautiful Dissertation by D. Rings on "Hot Brownian motion". It contains a detailed account for the theory of HBM and Brownian motion of colloidal particles in general. I have had the pleasure to cooperate with D.R. and K.K. on several publications.
  • A further elegant article regarding hot Brownian motion is "Generalised Einstein relation for Hot Brownian motion" by D. Chakraborty et al., European Physics Letters Vol. 96, 60009, 2011

Journal Articles (list)

published journal arcticles (peer-reviewed), oa: open access
  1. "Bubble optics: Upward emerging ray paths", Applied Optics (Appl. Opt.), Vol.60(29), 9188-9199, M. Selmke, J.A. Lock2021
  2. "Bubble optics: Leonardo’s cross revisited: Part 3, non-paraxial analytical methods", Applied Optics (Appl. Opt.), Vol.60(21), 6235-6242, J.A. Lock, M. Selmke2021
  3. "Bubble optics: Leonardo’s cross revisited: Part 2, paraxial analytical methods", Applied Optics (Appl. Opt.), Vol.60(21), 6226-6234, J.A. Lock, M. Selmke2021
  4. "Bubble optics: Leonardo’s cross revisited: Part 1, numerical methods", Applied Optics (Appl. Opt.), Vol.60(21), 6213-6225, M. Selmke, J.A. Lock2021
  5. "An optical n-body gravitational lens analogy(oa)American Journal of Physics (Am. J. Phys.) Vol. 89, 11-20, 2021. preprint: arXiv:1911.03921 [physics.ed-ph]
  6. "Ground rainbows: A cautionary tale for authors and editors alike", Physics Teacher (Phys. Teach.) Vol. 58, 372, 2020
  7. "Optical Caustics of Multiple Objects in Water: Two Vertical Rods and Normally Incident Light", Applied Optics (Appl. Opt.), Vol.59(26), 7981-7993, M. Selmke, J.A. Lock2020.
  8. "Bubble optics", Applied Optics (Appl. Opt.), Vol. 59(1), 45-58, M. Selmke2020
  9. "Halo in the box: a macroscopic crystal arrangement to project mosaic halos", Applied Optics (Appl. Optics), Vol. 57(29), 8614-8623, M. Selmke and S. Selmke, 2018
  10. "Wine glass caustic and halo analogies", Applied Optics (Appl. Optics), Vol. 57(19), 5259-5267, M. Selmke2018
  11. "Theory for controlling individual self-propelled micro-swimmers by photon nudging I: directed transport", Phys. Chem. Chem. Phys. (PCCP), Vol. 20, 10502-10520, M. Selmke, U. Khadka, A. Bregulla, F. Chichos and H. Yang, 2018
  12. "Theory for controlling individual self-propelled micro-swimmers by photon nudging II: confinement", Phys. Chem. Chem. Phys. (PCCP), Vol. 20, 10521-10532, M. Selmke, U. Khadka, A. Bregulla, F. Chichos and H. Yang2018
  13. "The rainbow in the box", American Journal of Physics (Am. J. Phys.), Vol. 86(4), 316-318, M. Selmke and S. Selmke2018
  14. "A Note on the history of gravity tunnels" (oa), American Journal of Physics (Am. J. Phys.), Vol. 86(2), 153, M. Selmke2018
  15. "Revisiting the round bottom flask rainbow experiment", American Journal of Physics (Am. J. Phys.), Vol. 86(1), 14-21, M. Selmke and S. Selmke2018
  16. "Artificial circumzenithal and circumhorizontal arcs", American Journal of Physics (Am. J. Phys.), Vol. 85(8), 575-581, M. Selmke and S. Selmke, 2017
  17. "Thermal Diffusivities Studied by Single-Particle Photothermal Deflection Microscopy", ACS PhotonicsA. Heber, M. Selmke, and F. Cichos2017
  18. "Complex artificial halos for the classroom", American Journal of Physics (Am. J. Phys.), Vol. 84(7), 561-564, M. Selmke and S. Selmke2016
  19. "Artificial Halos(oa)American Journal of Physics (Am. J. Phys.), Vol. 83(8), 751-760, M. Selmke2015
  20. "Intensity distribution of the parhelic circle and embedded parhelia at zero solar elevation: theory and experiments", Applied Optics (Appl. Opt.), Vol. 54, Issue 22, 6608-6615, S. Borchardt, M. Selmke2015
  21. "Hot Brownian motion and photophoretic self-propulsion", diffusion-fundamentals.org Vol. 23(1), 1-19, R. Schachoff, M. Selmke, A. Bregulla, F. Cichos, D. Rings, D. Chakraborty, K. Kroy, K. Günther, A. Henning-Knechtel, E. Sperling, M. Mertig2015
  22. "Thermal diffusivity measured with a single plasmonic nanoparticle", Physical Chemistry Chemical Physics (PCCP), accepted, A. Heber, M. Selmke, F. Cichos2015
  23. "Mie scattering by a refractive 1/r inhomogeneity: electromagnetic scattering by the infinite Coulomb-like scatterer", Journal of Quantitative Spectroscopy & Radiative Transfer (JSQRT), M. Selmke, 2014
  24. "Comment on: "Optimal detection angle in sub-diffraction resolution photothermal microscopy: application for high sensitivity imaging of biological tissues"" (oa)Optics Express (Opt. Express), Vol. 23, Issue 5, pp 6747-6750, M. Selmke and F. Cichos2015
  25. "Energy Redistribution Signitarures in Transmission microscopy of Rayleigh- and Mie- particles", Journal of the Optical Society of America A (JOSA A)M. Selmke and F. Cichos2014
  26. "Photothermal single particle microscopy using a single laser beam", Applied Physics Letters (Appl. Phys. Lett.), Vol. 105, 0135011, M. Selmke, A. Heber, M. Braun, F. Cichos, 2014
  27. "Metal nanoparticle based all-optical photothermal modulator", ACS Nano, Vol. 8, Issue 2, 1893-1898, A. Heber, M. Selmke, F. Cichos2013
  28. "Nano-lens Diffraction around a Single Heated Nano Particle: errata" (oa),Optics Express (Opt. Express), Vol. 21, No. 21, pp. 25344-25345, 2013
  29. "Photothermal single particle Rutherford scattering microscopy", Physical Review Letters, (Phys. Rev. Lett.), Vol. 110, 103901, M. Selmke, F. Cichos, 2013
  30. "Photonic Rutherford Scattering: A Classical and Quantum mechanical analogy in Ray- and Wave-optics", American Journal of Physics (Am. J. Phys.), Vol. 81, No. 6, pp 405-413, M. Selmke and F. Cichos, 2013
  31. "Photothermal Signal Distribution Analysis (PhoSDA)", Physical Chemistry Chemical Physics (PCCP), M. Selmke, R. Schachoff, M. Braun, F. Cichos, 2013 (advance article)
  32. "Twin-Focus Photothermal Correlation Spectroscopy", RSC Advances (RSC Adv.), Vol. 3, pp. 394-400, M. Selmke, R. Schachoff, M. Braun, F. Cichos, 2013
  33. "Gaussian Beam Photothermal Single Particle Microscopy" (oa), Journal of the Optical Society of America A (JOSA A), Vol. 29, No.10, M. Selmke, M. Braun, F. Cichos, 2012
  34. "Photothermal Single Particle Microscopy: Detection of a Nanolens",  ACS Nano, Vol. 6, No. 3, pp. 2741–2749, M. Selmke, M. Braun, F. Cichos, 2012
  35. "Nano-lens Diffraction around a Single Heated Nano Particle" (oa), Optics Express (Opt. Express), Vol. 20, No. 7, pp. 8055-8070, M. Selmke, M. Braun, F. Cichos, 2012, same article republished in the Virtual Journal for Biomedical Optics, Vol. 7, Iss. 52012
  36. "Measuring Flow Profiles and Slip by Single Molecule Tracking Experiments in Thin Liquid Films", The Journal of Physical Chemistry C (J. Phys. Chem. C), Vol. 114 (10), pp 4479-4485, A. Schob, M. Pumpa, M. Selmke and F. Cichos, 2010
  37. "Temperature dependent Single Molecule Rotational Dynamics in PMA", Physical Chemistry Chemical Physics (PCCP), Vol. 13, 1849-1856, S. Adhikari, M. Selmke and F. Cichos, 2011
  38. "Theory of Hot Brownian Motion", Soft Matter, Vol. 7, 3441-3452, D. Rings, M. Selmke, F. Cichos and K. Kroy2011
  39. "Hot Brownian Motion", Physical Review Letters (Phys. Rev. Lett.), 105, 090604, D. Rings, R. Schachoff, M. Selmke, F. Cichos, K. Kroy, 2010
  40. "Papas Pfannekuchen", Pnemologische Leckerbissen, pp 63-64, Markus Selmke, ca. 1993

other published arcticles

  1. "An optical n-body gravitational lens analogy(oa)arXiv:1911.03921 [physics.ed-ph]
  2. "Bubble optics" (oa), arXiv:1909.04401, Vol. 59(1), 45-58, M. Selmke2020
  3. "Revisiting the round-bottom flask experiment" (oa), arXiv:1612:09563, M. Selmke and  S. Selmke2016
  4. "Artificial Circumzenithal and Circumhorizontal Arcs" (oa), arXiv:1608:08664, M. Selmke and S. Selmke2016
  5. "The physics of the photothermal detection of single absorbing nano-objects: a review" (oa), arXiv:1510:08669, M. Selmke and F. Cichos2015.
  6. "Intensity distribution of the parhelic circle and embedded parhelia at low solar elevations: theory and experiments" (oa), arXiv:1412.8033, S. Borchardt and M. Selmke, 2014
  7. "Energy Redistribution Signitarures in Tranmission microscopy of Rayleigh- and Mie- particles" (oa), arXiv:1404.0567v1M. Selmke and F. Cichos, 2014
  8. "Hot Brownian Motion" (oa), arXiv:1003.4596v2D. Rings, R. Schachoff, M. Selmke, F. Cichos, K. Kroy, 2010
  9. "Photonic Rutherford scattering: A Classical and Quantum Mechanical Analogy in Ray- and Wave-Optics" (oa), arXiv:1208.5593, M. Selmke, F. Cichos, 2013
  10. "Photothermal single particle Microscopy" (oa), arXiv:1105.3815v1, M. Selmke, M. Braun, F. Cichos, 2011
  11. "Nanolens diffraction around a single heated nano particle" (oa), arXiv:1109.2772v1, M. Selmke, M. Braun, F. Cichos, 2011

Applied Optics - (publication statistics)

Since I have published some articles in the Journal Applied Optics (AO), I was interested in the statistics of publishing of this Journal. AO is the prime journal in which technical papers on everyday optics phenomena are published, including topics such as atmospheric optics and caustics.

 

Interestingly, similar to my analysis on the American Journal of Physics (see below, the same methods have been employed, i.e. a PowerShell script running through the individual issue html pages of https://www.osapublishing.org/ao/browse.cfm was written, extracting titles, page counts and authors using RegEx), clear trends are indeed visible. For instance, the number of authors per publication is increasing almost linearly, while the number of single-author-articles has been in a steady decline since 1990 (since that time 36 issues appear per year), starting from roughly 20% to now <5% at the end of 2019. (Together with the increasing number of authors per paper, this suggests an increasing tendency for collaborative research published in AO). On the other hand, the page count has remained mostly constant, with a long-tailed distribution peaking at 6 pages per paper and an average count of around 8. Most papers at AO are 3-author papers (typical author-count). Furthermore, the average length of the titles of papers has been steadily increasing since 1990, from 75 to 100 characters (including white spaces) per title.

 

see also: https://www.natureindex.com/news-blog/paper-authorship-goes-hyper

American Journal of Physics - (publication statistics)

I have published several of my articles in the American Journal of Physics (Am. J. Phys.). According to the American Association of Physics Teachers (AAPT), it is "intended to serve teachers of advanced-level physics instruction as well as researchers in the fields of physics and physics education". It has long been my favourite journal for the broad, accessible, exciting and enjoyable coverage of diverse fields of physics, including optics, mechanics, general relativity and many more.

 

A recent editorial by leaving editor David P. Jackson, "Publication statistics, an invitation, and farewell" (Am. J. Phys. 85(9), 645 (2017)), gave a rare insight into the journal's peer-review and submission statistics. Among the interesting figures were a rise of 20% between 2012 and 2015 in the submitted manuscripts and an actual acceptance rate of regular papers just above 10% (122 papers being accepted in 2015; cf. PRL <25%, Nature ~8%, Science ~7%), and a review-acceptance rate of 35% (i.e. after summary-rejections; cf. PRL ~30%, Nature 20%, Science 35%). The impact factor of the Am. J. Phys. was 1.069 as of 2017.

 

In a small project, I have compiled some further statistics about the journal's issues dating back to the first volume in 1933 up to the September issue (9) of 2017. To this end, I have programmed a PowerShell (thanks to @ChrSteinert for help!) script which downloaded their web-archive and extracted the relevant information using regular expressions (cf. Regex101.com): 4 issues per year were published until 1936, whereafter 6 issues appeared until 1947, followed by 9 issues per year until 1960, whereafter it finally became published monthly (12 issues per year). Below, "articles" include book reviews, film reviews (early days of the journal), discussion notes, editorials, etc., i.e. every one of the 24086 articles with a DOI. Out of those, 10961 were regular papers, 3269 were book/film reviews, 1995 were letters, 1386 were apparatus-related notes, 1124 were news / announcements / meeting reports, 522 were (guest) Editorials, 135 physics education research, and several more in less frequent categories / sections.

 

The statistics reveal a trend to longer papers, more authors per contribution (roughly a doubling, with a corresponding decline of single-authored articles) and a slightly growing fraction of regular papers per issue relative to other formats such as reviews / comments / notes.