On-board sample cleaver

An on-board sample cleaver has been developed in order to cleave small and hard-to-cleave samples. To acquire good cleaves from rigid samples the alignment of the cleaving blade with respect to the internal crystallographic planes is crucial. To have the opportunity to mount the sample and align it to the blade ex situ has many advantages. The design presented has allowed us to cleave very tiny and rigid samples, e.g., the high-temperature superconductor $La(2−x)SrxCuO4$⁠. Further, in this design the sample and the cleaver will have the same temperature, allowing us to cleave and keep the sample at low temperature. This is a big advantage over prior cleaver systems. As a result, better surfaces and alignments can be realized, which considerably simplifies and improves the experiments.