Patent ID: 6740461
Filing Date: 2004-05-25
Classification: G03G

Abstract:
A carrier comprising carrier particles, each carrier particle comprising a core particle comprising at least a magnetic material and a surface coating layer provided on said core particle comprising at least a resin,said surface coating layer being constituted of a plurality of regions, said regions being separately formed and joined together to form a complex configuration, and having different phase lags when said surface coating layer is subjected to scanning by phase imaging measurement using a scanning probe microscope in a tapping mode, wherein a region having a phase lag over the average phase lag obtained from Eavg=&Sgr;(E(i)Â·S(i))/&Sgr;S(i) has an area SO, and SO and &Sgr;S(i) are in a relationship of 10%&lE;SO/&Sgr;S(i)Ã—100&lE;90% when each of said regions comprises a component A(i) having an area S(i) and a phase lag E(i), in which i represents the number of regions with different phase lags, wherein said regions include a region that occupies an area Smod which is the maximum area occupied by any one of said regions and wherein said surface coating layer comprises a component Amod forming said region which occupies said maximum area Smod, and wherein a boundary between said region formed by said component Amod and a region adjacent thereto has a fractal dimension of 1.1 to 1.6.