  We have studied the low speed fracture regime for different glassy materials
with variable but controlled length scales of heterogeneity in a carefully
mastered surrounding atmosphere. By using optical and atomic force microscopy
(AFM) techniques we tracked in real-time the crack tip propagation at the
nanometer scale on a wide velocity range (mm/s - pm/s and below). The influence
of the heterogeneities on this velocity is presented and discussed. Our
experiments reveal also -for the first time- that the crack progresses through
nucleation, growth and coalescence of nanometric damage cavities within the
amorphous phase. This may explain the large fluctuations observed in the crack
tip velocities for the smallest values. This behaviour is very similar to what
is involved, at the micrometric scale, in ductile fracture. The only difference
is very likely due to the related length scales (nanometric instead of
micrometric). Consequences of such a nano-ductile fracture mode observed at a
temperature far below the glass transition temperature in glass is finally
discussed.
