Photoconductive member having barrier and depletion layers

A photoconductive member which comprises:

• (a) a substrate;
• (b) a photoconductive layer;
• (c) a barrier layer provided between said substrate and said photoconductive layer, and having a function of substantially inhibiting injection of carriers from the substrate side to the photoconductive layer;
• and
• (d) a depletion layer region created in the interfacial region of said photoconductive layer and said barrier layer,
• said photoconductive layer and said barrier layer being made of an amorphous material with silicon as a matrix and hydrogen as a constituent atom,
• a part of said barrier layer being present between the depletion layer region and the substrate in such a thickness that, in order to inhibit injection of carriers having the same polarity as that of the minority carriers in said barrier layer from said substrate side to said photoconductive layer, probability of said carriers reaching said depletion layer region from said substrate side may be substantially neglected,
• the photo-carriers in said photoconductive layer having the same polarity as that of majority carriers in said barrier layer, among said photo-carriers to be generated in said photoconductive layer by irradiation of electromagnetic waves, being caused to move in the direction of the barrier layer,
• said barrier layer having a layer thickness of from 0.02 to 0.5 microns and containing as impurity to govern the conductive type thereof an atom in Group III-A or V-A of the Periodic Table, and
• said photoconductive layer having a layer thickness of from 1 to 70 microns and a resistance value of 5.times.10.sup.9 ohm-cm and greater, and containing as impurity to govern the conductive type thereof an atom in Group III-A of the Periodic Table, or not containing such impurity.