Patent ID: 8512923

Claim:
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).