Image forming apparatus and process cartridge

An image forming apparatus comprising:

• an electrophotographic photoreceptor comprising a conductive support and a photosensitive layer including an outermost surface layer capable of transporting a charge, the outermost surface layer being farthest from the conductive support and containing a resin having a crosslinking structure;
• a charging unit that charges the electrophotographic photoreceptor;
• a first exposure unit that exposes the electrophotographic photoreceptor to form an electrostatic latent image on the electrophotographic photoreceptor charged;
• a developing unit that develops the electrostatic latent image with a toner to form a toner image;
• a transfer unit that transfers the toner image from the electrophotographic photoreceptor to a medium to be transferred;
• and
• a second exposure unit that uniformly exposes the electrophotographic photoreceptor,
• the outermost surface layer of the electrophotographic photoreceptor absorbing exposure light of the second exposure unit and having a maximum absorbance of about 0.05 or less in the entire wavelength range of the exposure light of the second exposure unit, wherein
• the second exposure unit comprises a controller that controls a quantity of the exposure light,
• the second exposure unit comprises a controller that controls exposure timing so as to uniformly irradiate the electrophotographic photoreceptor with the exposure light at irregular timings during one of a single erase exposure and a single pre-exposure prior to an image forming cycle, and
• the second exposure unit comprises a light source including a semiconductor element.