Two-dimensional van der Waals single crystals DyOBr and SmOCl have been grown by flux method and their anisotropic magnetic properties are reported. DyOBr orders antiferromagnetically at T$_{N}$=9.5 K with magnetic moments lying along $a$-axis, similar as DyOCl. Its magnetic susceptibility shows an anomaly at T$^{*}$=30 K possibly due to the crystal field effect. Furthermore a 1/3 magnetization plateau is clearly observed under H$\parallel$a and H$\parallel$[110], which might be a field-induced spin-flop phase or some exotic quantum magnetic state. On the other hand, isostructural SmOCl undergoes an antiferromagnetic transition at T$_{N}$=7.1 K and exhibits a contrasting Ising-like perpendicular $c$-axis magnetic anisotropy, which could be well explained by our crystal field calculations. Both DyOBr and SmOCl are insulators with band gap of $\sim$5 eV, our results suggest they are promising in building van der Waals heterostructures and applications in multifunctional devices.
Comment: 6 pages, 5 figures