Patent ID: 8440377
Filing Date: 2013-05-14
Classification: G03G

Abstract:
1. An electrophotographic photosensitive member comprising a substrate, a photoconductive layer on the substrate, an intermediate layer on the photoconductive layer, and a surface layer formed from hydrogenated amorphous silicon carbide on the intermediate layer, wherein the intermediate layer contains silicon atoms, carbon atoms, and hydrogen atoms, a distribution of a hydrogen atomic ratio, which is defined by a ratio (H/(Si+C+H)) of the number of hydrogen atoms (H) to a sum of the number of silicon atoms (Si), the number of carbon atoms (C), and the number of hydrogen atoms (H), in the intermediate layer has a maximum region in a layer thickness direction of the intermediate layer, a largest value of the hydrogen atomic ratio in the maximum region of the distribution of the hydrogen atomic ratio in the intermediate layer is larger than a hydrogen atomic ratio in the surface layer, the hydrogen atomic ratio in the surface layer is 0.30 to 0.45 inclusive, a distribution of a carbon atomic ratio, which is defined by a ratio (C/(Si+C)) of the number of carbon atoms (C) to a sum of the number of silicon atoms (Si) and the number of carbon atoms (C), in the intermediate layer has a maximum region and a minimum region in the layer thickness direction of the intermediate layer, a carbon atomic ratio in the maximum region of the distribution of the carbon atomic ratio in the intermediate layer is 0.53 to 0.63 inclusive, a carbon atomic ratio in the minimum region of the distribution of the carbon atomic ratio in the intermediate layer is 0.47 or more, and is smaller than the carbon atomic ratio in the maximum region of the distribution of the carbon atomic ratio in the intermediate layer, and at least a part of the maximum region of the hydrogen atomic ratio in the intermediate layer is superimposed on the minimum region of the carbon atomic ratio in the intermediate layer.