We have found that fracture of silicon wafer specimens without introduced flaws takes place with the ejection of many small particles that emit infrared radiation, which has been imaged with a sensitive CCD camera. The particles are of order micron dimensions, preventing surface-barrier separation of carriers excited by the bond breaking at cleavage. Furthermore, larger ejected particles can subsequently crack, allowing further ejection of small luminescent particles. The results show that a simple theory of spread of a pre-existing flaw can be a serious oversimplification of complex phenomena occurring at the onset of brittle cleavage.

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