${\mathrm{CeTe}}_3$ is a van der Waals antiferromagnet composed of magnetic ${\left[\mathrm{CeTe}\right]}^{+}$ layers coupled to highly conducting ${\mathrm{Te}}^{0.5-}$ square nets. Its simple quasi-two-dimensional electronic structure and cleavable nature make it an appealing platform for exploring correlated magnetism in reduced dimensions. To clarify the nature of its low-temperature state, we performed single-crystal neutron diffraction down to 0.3 K, complemented by scanning tunneling microscopy. A magnetic transition near 1.5 K gives rise to incommensurate Bragg peaks at $q_{\pm }\sim (\pm 0.17,0,0.31)$, consistent with a double-$q$ magnetic order whose moments are predominantly aligned along the $c$ axis. The strongly reduced ordered moment is consistent with enhanced quantum fluctuations driven by $c\text{−}f$ hybridization, while the deviation of the propagation vectors from simple nesting suggests a coupling to residual charge-density-wave instabilities of the quasi-one-dimensional Te-derived bands. These results indicate that ${\mathrm{CeTe}}_3$ hosts a correlated magnetic ground state where spin and itinerant charge degrees of freedom are intimately linked in the van der Waals limit.

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• Magnetic order
• Magnetism
• Antiferromagnets
• Heavy-fermion systems
• Neutron diffraction
• Scanning tunneling microscopy