Catastrophic fracture induced fracto-emission

Fracto-emissions accompanying crack propagation were observed in recent experiments. The energy impulses during and after each atomistic fracture increment stimulate the fracto-emission. A model of the atomic scale cleavage processes is proposed to formulate a catastrophic fracture theory relevant to these phenomena. A criterion for catastrophic jump of the cleavage potential is applied to representative crystals. We simulate the propagation of the emitted particles along a crack bounded by zigzag surfaces and quantify the long-time delay law of fracto-emissions after fracture.