Abstract

Fracture mechanics has been traditionally intended in the framework of technological implications, often leaving aside the intrinsic structural properties of the materials and their theoretical implications. This approach may be considered to mainly arise from the unavailability of techniques that are capable to understand the fracture mechanisms occurring at the very crack tip. As a result, the value of the intrinsic strength of brittle materials has been traditionally embodied into a phenomenologically interpreted crack-tip singularity (according to the Griffith’s model), and the intrinsic strength behavior of solids remains unfolded. The ultimate strength of the first bond ahead of a crack can be now monitored by advanced spectroscopic techniques such as Raman and Cathodoluminescence spectroscopy, which coupled with combined quantum-mechanics atomistic simulation models, may give access to the intrinsic material strength, thus offering an unique possibility to open the Pandora’s box at the crack tip: a significative advancement in modern fracture mechanics.