Аннотация:The fractoluminescence spectra have been measured during fracturing a quartz surface by “microcutting” by diamond crystals and by impacts on its surface by a steel striker, and the photoluminescence spectra have been obtained after fracture of quartz. The fractoluminescence spectra have a band 2.12 eV, which is ascribed to excited ≡Si–O• radicals which form during breaking the –Si–O–Si– bonds. The fractoluminescence is a set of ~50-ns signals, the intensity of which is changed by an order of value. The time interval between the signals is varied from ~0.1 μs to several microseconds. The signals appearing at an impact contain five superposing maxima and the signal appearing during microcutting, four superposing maxima. The fractoluminescence signals are assumed to appear when dislocations break through barriers which prevent their movement over slip planes and during the formation of the smallest (“initial”) cracks. The growth rate constant of such cracks and the damping constant of the fractoluminescence after their stopping have been determined. The mean sizes of the initial crack edge area are ~5 nm2 after the impact and ~25 nm2 after microcutting. The photoluminescence spectra measured after the fracture contain the band 2.4 eV, which is ascribed to the ≡Si–O radicals of the crack surface after their stopping.