Fractography of dynamic crack propagation in silicon crystal

The phenomena occurring during rapid crack propagation in brittle single crystals were studied by cleaving silicon specimens on the low energy cleavage planes under tensile and bending. The experiments revealed new phenomena not previously reported, and new crack path instabilities in particular. The well defined boundary conditions of the tested specimens and crack velocity measurements enabled rationalization of the observed phenomena and the velocity-surface instabilities relationship in particular. In contrast to amorphous materials, the observed instabilities are generated at relatively low velocity, while at high velocity the crack path remains stable. No evidences for mirror, mist, and hackle instabilities, typical in amorphous materials, were found.