Can Sheared Surfaces Emit Light?

We apply a new formalism to calculating emission of light from sheared dielectric surfaces. When the surfaces are smooth, emission of light requires extreme velocities, but introducing surface roughness with short-period components reduces the extreme demands on velocity so that for atomic scale roughness shear velocities as small as 10⁺⁴ ms^-1 will result in light emission. Some order of magnitude estimates are given.