Quantum annealed criticality and enhanced magnetocaloric effect on the frustrated Ising honeycomb lattice bilayer

Phase transitions and thermodynamic properties of an Ising antiferromagnetic bilayer honeycomb lattice with competing interlayer interactions were investigated. By applying a cluster mean-field method, we study the role of exchange interactions on the interplay between thermal fluctuations and quantum effects introduced by a transverse magnetic field. The presence of competing interactions can lead to the onset of first-order phase transitions, but our findings reveal that the nature of these phase transitions can be changed by the transverse magnetic field, introducing continuous phase transitions at low temperatures. Our results also support that this change in the nature of phase transitions, called quantum annealed criticality, is associated with a large accumulation of entropy and an enhanced magnetocaloric effect at low temperatures. Therefore, magnetically anisotropic bilayer honeycomb systems provide a promising platform for the implementation of cooling and heating technologies based on enhanced magnetocaloric effect near quantum criticality.