Electrophotographic photosensitive member and electrophotographic apparatus
AssigneeCanon Kabushiki Kaisha
InventorsKazuto Hosoi, Jun Ohira
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Abstract
An electrophotographic photosensitive member is disclosed which has a change layer consisting of five or more a-SiC intermediate layers, provided between an a-Si photoconductive layer and an a-SiC surface layer. Where two layers contiguous to each other in which C/(Si+C) is from 0.35 to 0.65 are selected from among the a-SiC intermediate layers included in the change layer, the rate of increase between the C/(Si+C) of an a-SiC intermediate layer on the photoconductive layer side and the C/(Si+C) of an a-SiC intermediate layer on the surface layer side (i.e., the rate of increase between layers) is 19% or less.
Claims9
An electrophotographic photosensitive member comprising:
- a substrate,
- a photoconductive layer comprising amorphous silicon,
- a change layer, and
- a surface layer, in this order,
- wherein,
- the surface layer comprises hydrogenated amorphous silicon carbide, and has a ratio of a number of carbon atoms to the sum of a number silicon atoms and the number of carbon atoms, C/(Si+C), of from 0.61 to 0.90,
- the change layer includes five or more intermediate layers containing hydrogenated amorphous silicon carbide, and having respective ratios of C(Si+C),
- the respective ratios C/(Si+C) of the intermediate layers are smaller than the ratio of C/(Si+C) of the surface layer, and increase monotonously from an innermost intermediate layer on the side of the photoconductive layer toward an outermost intermediate layer on the side of the surface layer,
- wherein,
- among the intermediate layers, at least two intermediate layers which are contiguous to each other, one of which on the side of the photoconductive layer is defined as a first intermediate layer, and the other on the side of the surface layer is defined as a second intermediate layer, have C/(Si+C) of from 0.35 to 0.65 and wherein,
- when C/(Si+C) of the first intermediate layer is defined as A, and C/(Si+C) of the second intermediate layer is defined as B, A and B satisfy the following inequality (1):
- {(B−A)/A}×100≦19% (1).
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.