Stripe magnetic order and field-induced quantum criticality in the perfect triangular-lattice antiferromagnet CsCeSe$_2$

Abstract: The two-dimensional triangular-lattice antiferromagnet (TLAF) is a textbook example of frustrated magnetic systems. Despite its simplicity, the TLAF model exhibits a highly rich and complex magnetic phase diagram, featuring numerous distinct ground states that can be stabilized through frustrated next-nearest-neighbor couplings or anisotropy. In this paper, we report low-temperature magnetic properties of the TLAF material CsCeSe$2$. The inelastic neutron scattering (INS) together with specific heat measurements and density functional theory calculations of crystalline electric field suggest that the ground state of Ce ions is a Kramers doublet with strong easy-plane anisotropy. Elastic neutron scattering measurements demonstrate the presence of stripe-$yz$ magnetic order that develops below $T{\rm N} = 0.35$ K, with the zero-field ordered moment of $m_{\rm Ce} \approx 0.65~\mu_{\rm B}$. Application of magnetic field first increases the ordering temperature by about 20% at the intermediate field region and eventually suppresses the stripe order in favor of the field-polarized ferromagnetic state via a continuous quantum phase transition (QPT). The field-induced response demonstrates sizable anisotropy for different in-plane directions, $\mathbf{B}\parallel{}\mathbf{a}$ and $\mathbf{B}\perp{}\mathbf{a}$, which indicates the presence of bond-dependent coupling in the spin Hamiltonian. We further show theoretically that the presence of anisotropic bond-dependent interactions can change the universality class of QPT for $\mathbf{B}\parallel{}\mathbf{a}$ and $\mathbf{B}\perp{}\mathbf{a}$.