doi: 10.1111/j.1460-2695.2006.01054.

Aspects of rapid crack propagation in silicon

D. SHERMAN
Department of Materials Engineering, Technion, Israel Institute of Technology, Haifa 32000 Israel

Received in final form 7 June 2006

A B S T R A C T Fracture experiments with silicon specimens in recent years have shown the need for a
new approach to the analysis of rapidly propagating cracks in single crystals. Behaviour
and phenomena have been revealed that fracture in these materials is rather different from
the fracture of both amorphous and polycrystalline materials. We show that continuum
mechanics is insufficient for analyzing crack propagation in single crystals since it is unable
to consider atomistic-scale phenomena. Accordingly, we describe basic phenomena asso-
ciated with rapid crack propagation in silicon: (i) anisotropic velocity-dependent R-curve
behaviour, as a key phenomenon dictating atomistic scale behaviour, (ii) crack deflection
from one cleavage plane to another as a mesoscopic scale phenomenon in single-crystal
fracture, (iii) the Rayleigh surface wave speed as the limiting crack tip velocity is re-
examined, (vi) the lowest crack velocity in brittle crystals is examined, and finally (v) the
interaction between crack path and preferred cleavage planes in single crystals is depicted.

Keywords crack deflection; cleavage; dynamic fracture; energy dissipation; single crystal;
velocity-dependent.

The situation with single crystals is different. In the cur-

INTRODUCTION
Polycrystalline and amorphous materials are considered
to be isotropic; they have a single property characterizing
their resistance to crack initiation, namely either K IC or
G IC , both isotropic and defining the fracture resistance in
the entire volume and in any plane and direction. K IC stands
for the fracture toughness, G IC , for the fracture energy,
both being interrelated.1–3 When the stresses (defined by
K IC ) or the energy (defined by G IC ) are sufficiently high,
the crack will initiate and then propagate, stably or un-
stably, its velocity and path being dictated by the dynamic
properties of the material and by the appropriate physical
rules.4–6 Cracks may propagate either with no additional
crack resistance, as is assumed for brittle materials or with
increasing resistance, as in ductile, usually metallic, mate-
rials. In that case, the material is considered as exhibiting
an R-curve behaviour, its resistance to fracture increasing
as the crack length increases.1
Fracture mechanics usually refers to continuum,
isotropic, homogenous and dense materials. This being
so, it is noteworthy that fracture mechanics does not re-
quire the precise description and knowledge of the ma-
terial’s microstructure and of the events on the atomistic
scale near the crack tip in order to predict fracture initia-
tion and propagation.
rent contribution we show that crack initiation, propaga-
tion and path in single-crystals does require precise knowl-
edge and understanding of the fracture events on the
atomistic scale. The importance of such knowledge rests
in the fact that crack initiation and propagation occur on
the atomistic scale, being associated with the breaking
of bonds between atoms,1 which is of profound impor-
tance in single crystals (SCs); therefore, understanding
the material’s atomistic structure, crystallographic planes
and orientations, and their energies is essential. We there-
fore continue this introduction with the atomistic aspects
of fracture.
Crack propagation in brittle SCs is associated with two
spatial parameters—the plane of propagation and the di-
rection of propagation—together they construct the crack
system. In contrast to the fracture properties of poly-
crystalline and amorphous materials, brittle single crys-
tals possess varying fracture energies for various planes
and directions of crack propagation.7,8 The atomistic ar-
rangement of brittle SCs, and in particular the interatomic
forces, dictate the fracture processes, initiation and prop-
agation. Therefore, when a brittle SC is loaded to frac-
ture, it tends to cleave on one of the family of favoured
crystallographic planes, generally on that with the high-
est in-plane atomic density and maximum inter-planar

32

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separation, similar to the conditions dictating dislocation
mobility in metallic single crystals.
The decision as to which cleavage system will be the one
preferred for crack initiation in a specific geometry, crys-
tallographic structure and loading configuration, is made
possible with the aid of fracture theory.9,10 For this pur-
pose, and assuming that the crystal contains a pre-existing
crack or flaw, one calculates the quasi-static strain energy
release rate (SERR) per unit area of crack advance, G0 , and
evaluates, experimentally, the quasi-static fracture energy,

0 , for each possible cleavage system. The crack initi-
ates on the first system that fulfils the Irwin criterion:10
G0 =
0 . The lower limit to
0 is usually assumed to be
2γ S , which is twice the bond-breaking energy.9 However,
this value may be higher due to the lattice trapping ef-
fect,7,8,11–13 which depends on the atomistic arrangement,
namely the different distances between the atoms consti-
tuting the plane.
0 , the quasi-static fracture energy, is
usually assumed to be isotropic for the specific cleavage
plane, so that it does not depend on crystallographic ori-
entation on that plane. This only involves stretching the
bond until the forces between the atoms vanish or until
the bond between the atoms breaks. However, it may be
anisotropic within the plane, again due to the lattice trap-
ping effect. Furthermore, this value varies from one crys-
tallographic plane to another due to the different atomic
structures.
Molecular dynamics simulations of a cleavage in sili-
con7 demonstrate the anisotropic nature of a fracture in
a silicon crystal. The {111}<110>, the {111} <112>,
and the {110}<110> systems [{hkl}-crack plane, <uvw>
crack direction] are the ‘continuous’ systems; the crys-
tallographic structure of these systems being in such an
order that several bonds in the vicinity of the crack tip
are stretching and contributing to the crack propagation
process. These atoms share the load at the crack tip, and
the crack propagation is therefore considered ‘continuous’
and requires less energy during rapid propagation. On the
other hand, the fracture in the {110}<001> system ex-
hibits a completely different behaviour: the complex crys-
tallographic structure of this system prevents load sharing
between the atoms close to the crack tip, and a single atom
at the crack tip is carrying most of the load. The bond-
breaking events are therefore abrupt, which results in a
relatively high energy consumption. We postulate that,
analogous to crack initiation, crack propagation is also
controlled by the anisotropic atomistic structure of the
crystal.
As to the stage of propagation, Freund14 has defined the
criterion for a straight and smooth crack moving at a con-
stant velocity, which is similar to Irwin’s criterion:11 G =

, where G and
are the temporal dynamic energy re-
lease rate and the temporal fracture energy, respectively.
G=G(a, V , t, geometry, load), a and V are the temporal crack


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R A P I D C R AC K P R O PAG AT I O I N S I L I C O N 33
length and crack’s velocity, respectively, G=G0 g(V ) where
G0 = G(a, V = 0, t, geometry, load) and g(V ) is a univer-
sal dynamical function expressing the kinetic energy and
approximated14 to be: g(V ) ≈ 1 − V /C R , which implies
that C R is the upper limit of crack velocity. Stroh15 argued
that C R , the Rayleigh free surface wave speed, is the the-
oretical upper limit for crack velocity in solids. It should
be noted that C R depends only on the elastic constants of
the material, and no microstructural or dynamical effects
were considered.
Experimental observations and numerical calculations
show that the crack velocity, V , never attains C R , even
at large values of SERR.16–18 Nevertheless, the crack ve-
locity may reach a significant fraction of C R .
We investigated the fracture behaviour of single-crystal
silicon, since it is the best man-made material, having a
perfect crystallographic structure with almost no defects.
It is also considered to be a nearly ideally brittle mate-
rial. Silicon has been widely investigated over the years
as a leading material in the microelectronics and MEMS
industries,19 and its properties in almost every field, in-
cluding crack propagation, have been extensively studied,
both experimentally and numerically, from both macro-
scopic and atomistic aspects. Silicon is commercially avail-
able and inexpensive, and as such it is most appropriate as a
model material for investigating various features of crack
propagation. Silicon has a diamond-like microstructure.
The preferred cleavage planes in silicon are the {110}
and the {111} planes, and they are inclined 35.26◦ to-
wards each other.
In the next sections, we describe the phenomenon of
velocity-dependent R-curve behaviour in silicon, which
is a highly anisotropic behaviour. The crack deflection
phenomenon and the deflection velocity as a function of
crystallographic orientation are calculated based on a rig-
orous analysis of the experimental results. The deflection
velocity defines the maximum crack tip velocity (along the
(110) plane) that a crack can acquire. Finally, it is shown
that the maximum crack velocity may be very far from that
predicted by Stroh. More critical issues are also discussed.
P H E N O M E N A A S S O C I AT E D W I T H R A P I D
C R A C K P R O PA G AT I O N
We fracture under three-point bending (3PB), thin and
wide silicon specimens cut from silicon wafers. The exper-
imental set-up is schematically shown in Fig. 1. The ex-
perimental procedure has recently been widely described
in the literature,20 and we therefore proceed without a
detailed description of the specimens and of the loading
procedure; they are advantageous in examining aspects
associated with rapid crack propagation in single crystals
and with the influence of a variety of crack tip velocities
along variety of crystallographic orientations in a single
34 D. S H E R M A N
Fig. 1 The three point bending (3PB) specimen, the
crystallographic orientations, and the definition of the main axes.
specimen. We describe the phenomena rather than the
experiments performed to obtain them.
In this regard, we first refer the reader to two impor-
tant parameters in our investigations. One are the quasi-
static surface energies,
110
0 and
111
0 , for the {110} and
the {111} preferred cleavage planes, respectively. De-
termination of these properties was attempted experi-
mentally and numerically, they were found to be widely
scattered, and their exact value are still debated. Nev-
ertheless, we use the results lately obtained by full-
density functional molecular dynamic simulations,7 with
which they were calculated to be 3.46 and 2.88 J/m2
for
1100 and
111
0 , respectively. However, in specimens
cut from [001] silicon wafers the {111} plane is inclined
35.26◦ to the {110} plane, and therefore the total en-
ergy dissipated by a crack running along the {111} plane
is
¯ 0111 = 2.88/cos(35.26) = 3.52J/m2 . In this case, the
{110} plane becomes the low-energy cleavage plane. In
the following discussion, G and
therefore refer to a
unit area of the specimen’s cross-section, not to the crack
surface.
Velocity-dependent R-curve behaviour of a crack
running on the {110} plane
We start this Section with a description of the fundamental
material behaviour that, we suggest, is the key reason for
the phenomena associated with rapid crack propagation.
Although the results described here were obtained follow-
ing a thorough analysis of the deflection phenomenon,20
we have chosen to describe it first. The observation of
crack deflection from the {110} to the {111} cleavage
plane in SC silicon as a function of crack tip velocity
was interpreted by atomistic energy-dissipation mecha-
nisms,20 in which the basic form of the internal cleav-
age energy is suggested by:
=
R +
I , where
R and

I are the reversible and the irreversible fracture ener-
gies, respectively. We postulate that
I is a function of
crack tip velocity, V , which is the bond breaking velocity
along certain system (plane and orientation) and therefore,


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I =
I (V ). Furthermore, the cleavage energy is also a
function of the crystallographic orientation on the cleav-
age plane, θ , thus:
I =
I (V ,θ), and the total cleavage
energy, more rigorously, is:

=
(V, θ) =
R (θ ) +
I (V, θ ). (1)
The dependence of
R on θ is due to the orientation-
dependent lattice trapping effect.7 The velocity and the
orientation-dependent cleavage energy may be described,
for simplicity, by a set of linear functions:

(V, θ) =
0 (θ ) + ∂
(θ)/∂ V · V. (2)
With the aid of the deflection phenomenon detected dur-
ing bending experiments, we were able to define a proce-
dure to calculate the velocity and orientation-dependent
cleavage energy of the {110} cleavage plane,
{110} (V ,
θ), by estimating ∂
{110} (θ )/∂V .21 A basic assumption
in that estimation was that ∂
{111} (θ)/∂V is constant and
independent of the crystallographic orientation, due to
the nearly isotropic nature of the (111) plane. Fortu-
nately, an estimation of ∂
(111) /∂V is possible,17 it was
shown there that a crack moving on the {111}<112̄> sys-
tem at a velocity of 2000 m/s gains only 0.1 J/m2 above
the quasi-static value. From finite-difference calculations
we obtain ∂
(111) /∂ V ≈ 5 · 10−5 J s/m3 for any crystallo-
graphic orientation. Using the values mentioned above
for the quasi-static cleavage energies7 and substituting

¯ 0111 −
0110 = 0.06 J/m2 , as well as the deflection veloc-
ity, we get:21
∂
(110) (θ ) 0.06
= 5 × 10−5 + . (3)
∂V Vdefl (θ )
The gradient on the left side of Eq. (3) is readily found
if V defl (θ ) is known. Indeed, V defl (θ ) was evaluated us-
ing somewhat lengthy analysis of the deflection phe-
nomenon.21 The results are shown in Fig. 2a. The gra-
dients ∂
{110} (θ )/∂V of the [11̄0] and the [001] crystallo-
graphic orientations for θ equal 0◦ and 90◦ , respectively,
are 7.08.10−5 and 3.1.10−3 Js/m3 , respectively (a ratio of
44). We suggest that this large difference is to be attributed
to the wide variations in the atomic arrangement of silicon
on the (110) plane.
We now rotate the silicon crystal to view the crystallo-
graphic structure that the crack front ‘sees’ when changing
its orientation from [11̄0] to [001] (θ=0◦ to 90◦ ). The plane
remains the (110), and the axis of rotation is the [110]. For
the [11̄0] direction, the atomic structure, as seen in Fig. 2b,
undergoes only minor changes until θ ∼54.7◦ , which is the
[11̄2] direction (Fig. 2c). At that angle, significant changes
occur in the crystal structure and are retained until {the
angle of} θ ∼90◦ , (the [001] direction) (shown in Fig. 2d)
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 R A P I D C R AC K P R O PAG AT I O I N S I L I C O N 35

Fig. 2 Energy and crystallographic structure: (a) the energy gradients,∂
(11̄0) (θ )/∂ V, versus the crystallographic orientation and the
crystallographic arrangements for a crack propagating along, (b) the (110) [11̄0], (c) the (110) [112̄] and (d) the (110) [001] systems.

that possesses a completely different microstructure. We
therefore suggest that at that point, the energy dissipation
due to phonon radiation is high compared with other ori-
entations. This results in a high dynamic-energy gradient
of this system. Note also that when the crystallographic
orientation changes from the [11̄0] to the [11̄2] direction,
a ‘global load sharing’ mechanism takes over, as more than
two bonds are participating in the bond-breaking mech-
anisms, so that these mechanisms are continuous, while
from the [11̄2] to the [001] direction, ‘local load shar-
ing’ prevails, in which only one bond carries most of the
load and the bond breaking mechanism is abrupt, and the
phonon radiation there is high. Another important out-
come of this analysis is that while the gradients ∂
(110)
(θ)/∂V show wide variations, the total dynamic cleavage
energy at deflection,
(110) (V defl ,θ), Eq. (2), exhibits only
small variations: It ranges from 3.52 to 3.66 J/m2 for the
[001] and the [11̄0] orientation, respectively.
We note that the results described above are sensitive
to the exact values of
110 ¯ 111
0 and
0 , and therefore may be
altered for different values of the two. The basic behaviour,
however, will not change.
We postulate that the reason for the velocity-dependent
R-curve behaviour in nearly ideal brittle single crystals
is phonon radiation, which is dependent on the veloc-
ity and the crystallographic orientation. The anisotropic
phonon radiation is a source of energy dissipation mech-
anisms and is strongly dependent on the crystal structure.
As such, the phonon radiation is responsible for various
phenomena associated with rapid crack propagation; the
deflection described in the following is one of them.
Crack deflection from the {110} to the {111} plane
A most significant finding in our 3PB experiments was
the discovery of the macroscopic change in the preferred
cleavage plane from (110) to (111) as a function of crack
velocity and crystallographic orientation.20,21 Specimens
with relatively long notches (over 1 mm), and therefore
with relatively low energy and velocity at crack initiation,

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36 D. S H E R M A N
Fig. 3 Schematic presentation of the deflection phenomenon. (a) A
crack in specimens with intermediate notch length propagated first
on the (110) plane, thereafter the crack is deflected to the (111)
plane. The crack’s direction is from left to right. (b) Schematic
diagram showing the deflection phenomenon from the energy
point of view: the dynamic cleavage energy,
(V )=
R +
I (V ) of
both planes, as a linear function of crack tip velocity, for two
crystallographic orientations (near the [110] and near the [001]
R = CR .
directions), assuming C 111 110
were cleaved along the (110) cleavage plane. In specimens
with short notches (below 0.5 mm), and therefore with rel-
atively high energy and velocity, the fracture was always
over the (111) cleavage plane. The crack in specimens with
a notch of intermediate length (and therefore intermediate
energy and velocity) propagated first over the (110) plane,
and thereafter deflected to the (111) plane, as schemati-
cally shown in Fig. 3a. Similar cases of crack deflection
have recently been reported in the literature, but without
further analysis.18,22
As a crack rapidly advances in the material, a basic ques-
tion arises with regard to every single, discrete bond break-
ing mechanism: which is the selected path along which the
energy consumed in separating atoms is the lowest. The
energy consideration for the deflection phenomenon is
schematically shown in Fig. 3b, where both planes are as-
sumed to have the same C R , the Rayleigh free surface wave
speed, for simplicity21 , for any arbitrary crystallographic
orientation. As G0 gradually increases with increasing ex-
ternal load, crack initiation and propagation start when


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Irwin’s criterion11 is met, i.e., when G0 =
0 (point A in
Fig. 3b). The propagation line is velocity-dependent due
to phonon radiation at the moving crack tip (see below). G0
increases during crack propagation, as does
, the material
property that resists crack propagation, on the (110) plane
(line AB), where the velocity-dependent dynamic energy
is the lowest for the two cleavage planes. At point B, the
crack deflects to the (111) cleavage plane, as this plane be-
comes the one with the least cleavage energy and the rest
of the propagation takes place over that plane. This is the
case of a crack propagating in the [11̄0] or any other di-
rection on both planes. However, for a crack propagating
on the (110) plane but in the [001] direction, the atomic
arrangement implies much higher phonon radiation and
therefore much steeper ∂
(110) /∂V (line AD in Fig. 3b).
As a result, the crack advancing in the [001] direction will
deflect at a much lower velocity (point D) than in the pre-
ceding case (point B), and thereafter will propagate along
the (111) plane. It is postulated that, on the macroscopic
scale, the deflection phenomenon is independent of C R
but does depend on the anisotropic microstructure of the
crystal.
With respect to this occurrence we have suggested a
more general energetic criterion for the selection of the
preferred plane of propagation20 with orientation depen-
dence:
G(V, θ) −
i (V, θ) = max, (4)
where i is the i’th plane at the vicinity of crack’s plane.
Equation (4) is similar to Irwin’s criterion for crack initi-
ation.10 That criterion states that propagation occurs on
the lowest-energy plane, or alternatively, on the weakest
plane for which G-
is the maximum. At point B, de-
flection to the (111) plane takes place, since it is now the
lowest-energy plane.
Rayleigh surface wave speed and the limiting
crack velocity
Using our experimental results concerning the crack de-
flection phenomenon, we constructed the critical veloc-
ity at which the crack deflects from (110) plane to (111)
plane as a function of the crystallographic orientations, as
shown in Fig. 4a. That plot defines the maximum veloc-
ity at which a crack can run on the (110) cleavage plane
as a function of crystallographic orientation along that
plane. For example, a crack running on the (110) [11̄0]
system will deflect to the (111) [11̄0] system at a velocity of
∼2900 m/s. On the other hand, when the crack is prop-
agating on the (110) [001] system, deflection to the (111
[112̄] system occurs at a very low velocity, as low as 30 m/s,
which is two orders of magnitude lower than the previ-
ous velocity, meaning that a crack in the {110}<001>
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Fig. 4 (a) The deflection velocity, i.e., that at which the crack
deflects from the (110) plane to the (111) plane, as a function of the
crystallographic orientation, θ , with respect to the [11̄0] direction.
(b) The deflection velocity normalized by the Rayleigh surface wave
speed for the (110) plane as a function of crystallographic
orientations. The Rayleigh surface wave speeds for the (110) plane
as a function of the crystallographic orientations with respect to
[11̄0] direction is shown in the insert.23,24
system cannot propagate at a velocity higher than about
1% of C R .20 We postulate that this behaviour is due to the
changes in the atomic arrangement as the crystallographic
orientation changes on the (110) cleavage plane, resulting
in variations in the phonon radiation and hence, in varia-
tions in the energy dissipation mechanisms of each crys-
tallographic orientation. This point cannot be treated by
the conventional continuum mechanics approach, which
does not ‘see’ atoms.
The Rayleigh surface wave speeds on the {110} and
{111} planes were measured over the entire range of crys-


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R A P I D C R AC K P R O PAG AT I O I N S I L I C O N 37
tallographic orientations.23,24 The results for the {110}
cleavage plane are shown in the insert of Fig. 4b. The
results obtained for the deflection velocity vs. the crystal-
lographic orientation were normalized by Rayleigh speeds
and are shown in Fig. 4b. It is evident that as the crystal-
lographic orientation approaches the [001] direction, that
ratio drops to a few percent. For the most extreme case,
when the crack is propagating on the (110) cleavage plane
and in the [001] direction, the normalized deflection ve-
locity was calculated to be ∼0.01.
On the lowest velocity of a crack
The question whether a crack can be initiated and prop-
agate at a low velocity still puzzles many researches. Nu-
merical simulations, and molecular dynamics models in
particular, indicate a minimal velocity that the crack can
initiate at.25–28 Our 3PB specimens have demonstrated
that a crack can propagate at a velocity much lower than
that indicated by the simulations. To elucidate this point
we briefly describe the properties of our specimens, from
the velocity point of view. A detailed description can be
found elsewhere.29
The typical deformation upon bending plays a significant
role in our specimens. The tension/compression stress
field enforces a unique crack front. For the sake of sim-
plicity we assume that the shape of the crack front is that
of a quarter-ellipse having a long and straight ‘tail’ with
angle of inclination of 1◦ , see Fig. 5a. When the crack on
the bottom surface approaches the far edge of the spec-
imen, the tension/compression stress field changes, and
the crack front is no longer at ‘steady state’.
The crack front was identified by scribing the bottom
surface of the specimens perpendicularly to the crack di-
rection and observing the ‘Wallner lines’ or crack front
waves29 resulting from the crack’s interaction with the
scribed scratch. The interaction generated a disturbance
that propagated concentrically from the point of interac-
tion, marking the crack front by jogging it out of the plane,
as shown by an optical photograph of the fracture surface
of a crack running on the (110) cleavage plane of a sili-
con specimen, Fig. 5b. Note the nearly parallel lines of the
crack front near the top surface of the fracture, generated
by another scratch located to the right of the scratch pre-
viously introduced. The observed nearly parallel lines are
of profound importance, since it indicates the low veloc-
ity that the crack can attain. This crack front was found
to match in glass and in silicon specimens on the (110)
cleavage plane.29 In both materials the fracture surfaces
are atomistically smooth. Recent new experiments with
our 3PB specimens have shown that profile also matches
the crack front in silicon specimens cut from [110] wafers,
38 D. S H E R M A N

Fig. 5 (a) Schematic representation of the quarter-elliptical and the long-‘tail’ profile, the ridge pattern and the velocities associated with
crack propagation under 3PB loading, (b) the ‘Wallner line’ as the way to predicting the crack profile, and (c) the direction, θ , of the normal
velocity vector along the crack front and the normalized normal velocity, V n /V x, both as a function of the normalized location, y, with
respect to the height, h, of the fracture surface, y/h, of a point on that profile.

where the crack is running on the perpendicular, (111)
cleavage plane.
We postulate that the crack front is constructed of a set
of ridges initiating on the bottom surface, Point A, and
advances in the material towards the upper portion of the
specimen, Point B, as schematically shown in Fig. 5a for
an individual ridge and fully described elsewhere.29 The
velocity of propagation, V n , of an individual ridge is al-
ways normal to the local crack front, see Fig. 5a. This
normal velocity is the actual rate at which the bonds be-
tween atoms along the crack tip path are breaking and is
therefore the physical velocity.
At steady state, which is maintained for most of the
crack’s propagation, the crack front moves at a nearly
constant parallel velocity (V x ) in the x direction. The
physically significant velocity of the ridge, V n , coincides
with the parallel velocity, V x , in the lower portion of the
cross-section (see Fig. 5a). In the upper portion of the
specimen that velocity is very low and almost normal to
V x , and it coincides with the [001] direction. It is again
stressed that the specimen, with its unique crack front,
covers a large variety of velocities and crystallographic ori-
entations, in contrast, for example, to tensile specimens,
which consist of only one cleavage system. The normal

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velocity at any point of the crack front is given by V n =
V x sin θ , where θ is the angle between the local normal
to the crack front and the x-axis, as shown in Fig. 5c. The
resulting normal velocity, V n , is also shown in Fig. 5c.
The normal velocity decreases as the crack approaches
the top portion of the fracture surface and was esti-
mated20,21,29 to be of the order of several tens of m/s,
see Fig. 5c. This is in contrast to the minimum velocity
that a crack can decrease to, as demonstrated by numerical
simulations. According to the simulations, the minimum
velocity of crack propagation is about 0.35 C R, 25–28 which
in silicon on the (110) cleavage plane in the [110] and the
[001] directions, is nearly 1600 and 1900 m/s, respectively.
The maximum parallel velocity of a crack running on the
(110) plane without deflection was measured to be about
1500 m/s. Our quarter-elliptical crack front shape with
long tail contradicts that suggested minimal crack veloc-
ity supposition.
Crack path and cleavage plane
It is well accepted that cracks propagate on planes with
the lowest cleavage energy, these planes therefore known
as cleavage planes. In silicon, the {111} and {110} family
of planes are the cleavage planes, of which the latter has
the higher cleavage energy. A crack cannot propagate on
any other plane. Nevertheless, it is evident that when frac-
turing silicon wafers, the crack paths are not necessarily
straight.
It has lately been shown that, in glass30 and even in sin-
gle crystal silicon,31 cracks can oscillate and propagate in
a sinusoidal pattern with atomistically smooth surfaces.
We have recently shown that a fracture surface in crys-
talline silicon may be perturbed, but the perturbations
are smooth. In silicon, for example, when a crack is in-
teracting with stationary dislocations, the fracture surface
is smooth and flat but exhibits nanometric perturbations,
constructed, presumably, from atomistic steps along the
(111) and (110) cleavage planes to form complicated crack
paths.32,33 It is therefore possible for a crack to propagate
along paths that are not straight and yet atomistically to
follow the known cleavage planes.
Several theories, aimed at predicting the crack path selec-
tion, have been proposed4–6 , and numerical procedures,
based on these theories, have been developed. These the-
ories are either based on overall energy considerations
or are local, referring to the crack tip stress analysis. We
postulate that the existing laws of crack path selection are
inapplicable to single crystals. The crack path is first dic-
tated by the preferred plane of propagation, namely, by the
cleavage plane, and in certain conditions the crack will de-
flect and follow a new rule. Preliminary experiments in our
lab have shown that crack propagation paths in specimens
having the same geometry and loading scheme but made


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R A P I D C R AC K P R O PAG AT I O I N S I L I C O N 39
of silicon and of glass are dissimilar in nature. This point
requires a more thorough experimental program and a
new theoretical treatment.
SUMMARY
We demonstrate the differences between several aspects
of rapid crack propagation in amorphous materials and
in single crystals. While the continuum mechanics ap-
proach well predicts fracture initiation and propagation in
isotropic materials, such as amorphous and polycrystalline
ones, it cannot predict changes in the crack path or account
for material behaviour on the atomic scale. This being so,
the problem of understanding the fracture of brittle single
crystals is challenging. We have pointed out on velocity
and orientation dependent cleavage energy as the key phe-
nomenon responsible for the major phenomena occurring
during rapid crack propagation. The velocity-dependent
R-curve behaviour is attributed to the velocity dependent
phonon radiation, which is a source of energy dissipation.
We have, in particular, demonstrated the phenomenon of
crack deflection from one cleavage plane to another due to
energy considerations, and the different values of velocity
dependent energy dissipation on both preferred cleavage
planes in silicon. The discovery that the deflection ve-
locity varies as the crystallographic orientation varies has
led to another finding; the Rayleigh surface wave speed,
a constant dictated by the elastic constant of the material
only, is well accepted as the upper limit to crack velocity,
but we have shown that the maximum crack tip velocity
is dictated by the microstructure. Furthermore, we have
shown that a crack can propagate at a low velocity, as low
as tens of m/s, the lowest range of velocities that we can
measure. This is in contrast to predictions by molecular
dynamics simulations. Finally, the cleavage plane as the
selection of the crack path (as a recommendation only)
was discussed.
Acknowledgement
The support of the Israel Science Foundation through
Grant No. 1110/04 is gratefully acknowledged.
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