Patent ID: 8685611

Claim:
A process for forming an electrophotographic image, comprising the steps of: charging a surface of an electrophotographic photosensitive member, exposing the surface of the electrophotographic photosensitive member to imagewise exposure light, to form an electrostatic latent image on the surface of the electrophotographic photosensitive member, developing the electrostatic latent image with a toner, to form a toner image on the surface of the electrophotographic photosensitive member, transferring the toner image to a transfer material, and fixing the toner image on the transfer material, wherein, the electrophotographic photosensitive member is not heated with a photosensitive member heater throughout the process, wherein, the electrophotographic photosensitive member comprising: a photoconductive layer, and a surface layer comprising a hydrogenated amorphous silicon carbide, provided on the photoconductive layer, and wherein, a ratio of the number of carbon atoms (C) to a sum of the number of silicon atoms (Si) and the number of carbon atoms (C), C/(Si+C), in the surface layer, is from 0.61 or more to 0.75 or less; and the sum of atom density of the silicon atoms and atom density of the carbon atoms in the surface layer, is 6.60Ã—10 22 atom/cm 3 or more.