Unstable cracking behavior in nanoscale single crystal silicon: Initiation, unstable propagation and arrest

作者：Huang, Kai; Sumigawa, Takashi^*; Guo, Licheng^*; Yan, Yabin; Kitamura, Takayuki

来源：Engineering Fracture Mechanics, 2018, 196: 113-122.

DOI：10.1016/j.engfracmech.2018.04.014

• Nanoscale single crystal silicon
• Unstable cracking
• Fracture toughness
• Arrest toughness
• Specific surface energy

The unstable cracking behavior in nanoscale single crystal silicon, including initiation, unstable propagation and arrest, is experimentally observed by using a nanoscale trapezoidal-doublecantilever-beam method. A well-controlled multi-step cracking experiment is designed for accurately estimating both the fracture toughness K-Ic and the arrest toughness K-Ia. The experimental results show that the unstable cracking within a short range of hundreds of nanometers leads to an apparent decrease from K-Ic to K-Ia, i.e., K-Ia, < K-Ic, and produces surprisingly clean crack surfaces with negligible energy dissipation. The specific surface energy of (01 1) cleavage plane in nanoscale single crystal silicon is accurately evaluated as gamma = 1.83 J/m(2). These results provide a fundamental understanding of the unstable cracking behavior in a brittle material at the nanoscale.

• 出版日期2018-6-1
• 单位哈尔滨工业大学; 中国工程物理研究院