Associate Professor
ESH 4121
(205) 934-8068
Research Webpage
Research and Teaching Interests: Magnetism and superconductivity in strongly correlated materials, Experimental high pressure physics, Synchrotron x-ray spectroscopy, Mössbauer spectroscopy and inelastic x-ray scattering
Office Hours: M/TH 10:00 - 11:00 a.m., and by appointment
Education:
- B.S., Xi’an Jiaotong University, Physics
- M.S., Drexel University, Physics
- Ph.D., Washington University in St. Louis, Physics
I received my Ph.D. in experimental condensed matter physics in 2011 from Washington University in St. Louis working with Professor James Schilling. My thesis research was focused on studies of magnetism and superconductivity at extreme pressures.
Right after my Ph.D. I moved to the Advanced Photon Source (APS) at Argonne National Laboratory (ANL), with a joint appointment from COMPRES (Consortium for Materials Properties Research in Earth Sciences) and the APS. At the APS I worked first as a postdoctoral research associate and later as a beamline scientist, mostly working at nuclear resonant scattering beamlines in the Inelastic X-ray and Nuclear Resonant Scattering (IXN) group. I joined the Department of Physics at UAB in August 2019.
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Research Interests
The primary thrust of our research is to use external pressure and uniaxial strain as a tuning knob to study the fascinating phenomena in strongly correlated systems. In particular we are interested in understanding the interplay/competition of magnetism, superconductivity, electronic topology, and lattice dynamics in magnetic topological materials and unconventional superconductors. My group employ a suite of cutting-edge techniques to study quantum phases including lab-based transport and magnetization methods and state-of-the-art synchrotron spectroscopy techniques (synchrotron Mössbauer spectroscopy, nuclear resonant inelastic x-ray scattering, x-ray absorption, x-ray emission etc.).
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Recent Courses
- PH 752: Light Matter Interactions
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Select Publications
A full list of publications can be found on ResearchGate.
- P. Materne, W. Bi, J. Zhao, M. Y. Hu, M. L. Amigo, S. Siero, S. Aswartham, Bernd Büchner, and E. E. Alp, “Bandwidth controlled insulator-metal transition in BaFe2S3: A Mössbauer study under pressure”, Phys. Rev. B 99, 020505 (R) (2019).
- J. Liu, Q. Hu, W. Bi, L. Yang, Y. Xiao, P. Chow, Y. Meng, V.B. Prakapenka, H. Mao, and W.L. Mao, “Altered chemistry of oxygen and iron under deep Earth conditions”, Nat. Commun. 10, 1 (2019).
- D.E. Jackson, D. VanGennep, W. Bi, D. Zhang, P. Materne, Y. Liu, G.-H. Cao, S.T. Weir, Y.K. Vohra, and J.J. Hamlin, “Superconducting and magnetic phase diagram of RbEuFe4As4 and CsEuFe4As4 at high pressure”, Phys. Rev. B 98, 014518 (2018).
- J. Song, W. Bi, D. Haskel, and J.S. Schilling, “Evidence for strong enhancement of the magnetic ordering temperature of trivalent Nd metal under extreme pressure”, Phys. Rev. B 95, 205138 (2017).
- W. Bi, J. Lim, G. Fabbris, J. Zhao, D. Haskel, E.E. Alp, M.Y. Hu, P. Chow, Y. Xiao, W. Xu, and J.S. Schilling, “Magnetism of europium under extreme pressures”, Phys. Rev. B 93, 184424 (2016).
- W. Bi, J. Zhao, J. Lin, Q. Jia, M.Y. Hu, C. Jin, R. Ferry, W. Yang, V. Struzhkin, and E.E. Alp, “Nuclear resonant inelastic X-ray scattering at high pressure and low temperature”, J. Synchrotron Radiat. 22, 760 (2015).
- W. Bi, N.M. Souza-Neto, D. Haskel, G. Fabbris, E.E. Alp, J. Zhao, R.G. Hennig, M.M. Abd-Elmeguid, Y. Meng, R.W. McCallum, K. Dennis, and J.S. Schilling, “Synchrotron x-ray spectroscopy studies of valence and magnetic state in europium metal to extreme pressures”, Phys. Rev. B 85, 205134 (2012).
- W. Bi, Y. Meng, R. Kumar, A. Cornelius, W. Tipton, R. Hennig, Y. Zhang, C. Chen, and J. Schilling, “Pressure-induced structural transitions in europium to 92 GPa”, Phys. Rev. B 83, (2011).
- W. Bi, H.B. Banks, J.S. Schilling, H. Takahashi, H. Okada, Y. Kamihara, M. Hirano, and H. Hosono, “Anomalous He-gas high-pressure studies on superconducting LaO1-xFxFeAs”, New J. Phys. 12, 023005 (2010).
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Academic Distinctions & Professional Memberships
- American Physical Society
- National Science Foundation Career Award (2021)