We present a detailed study of magnetization, resistivity, heat capacity, and x-ray and neutron powder diffraction measurements performed on single crystals of nonstoichiometric ${\mathrm{CeAuBi}}_2$, Au deficiency $18\%$, a strongly correlated antiferromagnet with Néel temperature $T_N=13.2$ K. Field-dependent magnetization measurements reveal a large magnetic anisotropy at low temperatures with an easy axis along the crystallographic $c$ axis, in which direction a spin-flop transition exhibits strong features in magnetization, specific heat, and resistivity at $H_c=75$ kOe. The constructed temperature-field phase diagram connects this transition to the suppression of magnetic order, which evolves from a second-order nature into a first-order transition that bifurcates at the spin-flop transition into three transitions below 1 K. The smoothed nature of the metamagnetic transitions in nonstoichiometric ${\mathrm{CeAuBi}}_2$ is well described by an Ising model with weak quenched disorder, suggesting that the presence of Au vacancies is sufficient to smear the complex metamagnetic behavior and tune the critical behavior of magnetic order.

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• Antiferromagnetism
• Critical exponents
• Crystal growth
• Crystal stoichiometry
• Exchange interaction
• First order phase transitions
• Magnetic anisotropy
• Magnetic susceptibility
• Magnetoresistance
• Phase diagrams
• RKKY interaction
• Second order phase transitions
• Specific heat