Canon Kabushiki Kaisha

Kazuto Hosoi

Ryuji Okamura

Kazuyoshi Akiyama

Toshiyasu Shirasuna

Hitoshi Murayama

Satoshi Kojima

Junichiro Hashizume

Jun Ohira

Makoto Aoki

Tatsuyuki Aoike

Daisuke Tazawa

Kazuhiko Takada

Toshiyuki Ehara

Hideaki Matsuoka

Takashi Otsuka

Hironori Owaki

Yukihiro Abe

Takashi Ohtsuka

Hironori Ohwaki

Motoya Yamada

Koji Hitsuishi

Yoshihiro Ogawa

Tadashi Fukuda

Masaya Kawada

Masami Hano

Takeshi Ohtsu

Tetsuya Karaki

Kunimasa Kawamura

Takashi Kase

Daisuke Tsujimoto

Ryuichiro Matsuo

Kota Mori

Akinori Miyamoto

Mikihiro Akasaki

A toner includes toner particle containing at least a strontium titanate particle on the surface of the toner particle, and the toner is a water-washed toner from which strontium titanate particle desorbable by water washing are removed by water washing. The water-washed toner contains the strontium titanate particle having a number average particle diameter of primary particle (D1) of 10 nm or more and 150 nm or less, and when the distribution of an Sr element in the water-washed toner in the depth direction is determined, (i) the Sr element abundance on the outermost surface x satisfying 0.00&#x3c;x&#x2264;0.80, and (ii) the difference between x and xp 'xp&#x2212;x' satisfying 0.00&#x3c;xp&#x2212;x&#x2264;0.95, where xp is the maximum peak value (atomic %) of the Sr element abundance in the region from the outermost surface to 50 nm.

Toner

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.

Electrophotographic photosensitive member and electrophotographic apparatus

A negatively-chargeable electrophotographic photosensitive member, has, between a cylindrical substrate and a photoconductive layer, a first lower-part layer formed of a non-single crystal material containing silicon atoms and a second lower-part layer formed of a non-single crystal material containing silicon atoms, and on its photoconductive layer has an upper-part layer formed of a non-single crystal material containing silicon atoms. The first lower-part layer is a layer containing a periodic-table Group 13 element, and the upper-part layer has a region capable of retaining electrification charges.

Negatively-chargeable electrophotographic photosensitive member, image forming process and electrophotographic apparatus

In a plasma treatment method of and apparatus for treating the surface of a treatment target substrate by utilizing glow discharge produced by supplying high-frequency power into an inside-evacuated reactor through a high-frequency power supply means, a plurality of impedance regulation means for regulating impedances on the side of the reactor and on the side of the high-frequency power supply means are provided correspondingly to the impedances of a plurality of reactors, and the high-frequency power is supplied into the reactors via the impedance regulation means corresponding to the reactors. Plasma treatment can be made in a good efficiency and a low cost on a plurality of reactors having different impedances.

Plasma treatment method

An electrophotographic photosensitive member is provided minimizing the absorption of image exposure having a short wavelength in a surface layer and keeping good electrophotographic properties including resolving power. The electrophotographic photosensitive member includes a conductive substrate, and a photoconductive layer and a surface region layer sequentially superimposed on the conductive substrate. The surface region layer is composed of a non-single-crystal silicon nitride film containing an Group element in the periodic table and a carbon atom and using at least a silicon atom and a nitrogen atom as base materials. In the surface region layer, the Group 13 element content with respect to the total amount of constituent atoms has distribution having at least two local maximum values in the thickness direction, and an the average concentration of nitrogen atoms is 30 atm % to 70 atm %.

Electrophotographic photosensitive member

To provide a high-image-quality electrophotographic photosensitive member having a high sensitivity for a wavelength close to 380 to 500 nm, remarkable image resolution property in which absorption of the wavelength is hardly recognized, working-environment characteristic and high safety and superior in abrasion resistance and fabrication easiness and reducing optical memories and an electrophotographic apparatus using the high-image-quality electrophotographic photosensitive member. In the case of an electrophotographic photosensitive member having a substrate, photoconductive layer formed on the substrate and surface layer formed on the photoconductive layer and using silicon and nitrogen atoms as base material and containing an amorphous material containing at least oxygen atoms, the surface layer contains nitrogen atoms as an average concentration shown by the following expression (1) and contains oxygen atoms by the maximum value Omax of the number of oxygen atoms in the thickness direction:0.3&#x2266;N/(Si+N)&#x2266;0.7.&#x2003;&#x2003;(1)

Electrophotographic photosensitive member and electrophotographic apparatus using the electrophotographic photosensitive member

The invention provides a process for producing a negative-charging electrophotographic photosensitive member which can improve the adherence between a first layer and a second layer without lowering the effect of lessening image defects and realize a reduction in overall costs, a negative-charging electrophotographic photosensitive member produced by the process, and an electrophotographic apparatus. In the process for producing a negative-charging electrophotographic photosensitive member, a first layer is deposited on a substarte, at least the vertexes of protuberances are removed, the substrate with the first layer deposited theron is placed in a film forming furnace, the first layer surface is plasma-treated with a gas containing at least a Group 13 element in the periodic table and a dilution gas composed of at least one selected from hydrogen, argon and helium, and a layer formed of a non-single-crystal material is deposited as the second layer on the first layer.

Process for producing negative-charging electrophotographic photosensitive member, negative-charging electrophotographic photosensitive member, and electrophotographic apparatus using same

Provided is an electrophotographic photosensitive member having a photoconductive layer on an electrically conductive substrate, the photoconductive layer being formed from a non-single-crystal material constituted by at least silicon atoms as a base material, and a non-single-crystal layer region constituted by silicon atoms and carbon atoms as base materials, the non-single-crystal layer region being laminated on the photoconductive layer, in which the content distribution of the oxygen atoms to a total amount of component atoms in a thickness direction within the non-single-crystal layer region has a peak.

An electrophotographic photosensitive member is provided which can keep at a minimum the absorption of image exposure light of 380 to 500 nm in wavelength in its surface layer and concurrently can satisfactorily keep electrophotographic properties including resolving power. The electrophotographic photosensitive member has a substrate, and a photoconductive layer and a surface layer in this order provided on the substrate. The surface layer includes an amorphous material composed chiefly of silicon atoms and nitrogen atoms and containing at least oxygen atoms and carbon atoms, and the ratios of the numbers of the respective oxygen atoms, carbon atoms and nitrogen atoms to the total number of oxygen atoms, carbon atoms and nitrogen atoms contained in the amorphous material are each within a specific range.

The invention provides a method for producing an electrophotographic photosensitive member such that even if abnormal grown portions called spherical protrusionsexist on the surface of the photosensitive member, they do not appear on images, thus making it possible to considerably alleviate image defects. The method for producing the electrophotographic photosensitive member including layers each constituted by a non-single crystal material includes the steps of placing a substrate having a conductive surface in a film forming apparatus capable of being airtight-sealed under vacuum having evacuating means and raw material gas supplying means, and decomposing at least a raw material gas by a high frequency power to form a first layer constituted by at least a non-single crystal material on the substrate as a first step; exposing the substrate with the first layer formed thereon to a gas containing oxygen and water vapor as a second step; and decomposing at least a raw material gas by a high frequency power in the film forming apparatus to form on the first layer a second layer including an upper blocking layer constituted by a non-single crystal material as a third step.

Method for producing electrophotographic photosensitive member, electrophotographic photosensitive member and electrophotographic apparatus using the same

An electrophotographic photosensitive member production process is provided having the steps of placing a cylindrical substrate having a conductive surface in a first film-forming chamber, and decomposing a source gas with high-frequency power to deposit on the cylindrical substrate a first layer formed of a non-single-crystal material, taking out of the first film-forming chamber the cylindrical substrate with the first layer deposited thereon, and placing the cylindrical substrate with the first layer deposited thereon in a second film-forming chamber, and decomposing a source gas with a high-frequency power to deposit on the first layer a second layer having an upper-part blocking layer formed of a non-single-crystal material. Even where abnormal growth portions called spherical protuberances are present on the photosensitive member surface, they can be made not to appear on images, and image defects can vastly be remedied.

Process for producing electrophotographic photosensitive member, and electrophotographic photosensitive member and electrophotographic apparatus making use of the same

In an electrophotographic photosensitive member comprising a conductive substrate, and provided thereon a photoconductive layer containing at least an amorphous material composed chiefly of silicon atoms and, deposited on the photoconductive layer, a layer region containing an amorphous material composed chiefly of silicon atoms, which layer region contains at least partly a periodic-table Group 13 element, the content of the periodic-table Group 13 element based on the total amount of constituent atoms in the layer region deposited on the photoconductive layer has distribution having at least any two of maximum value(s) and maximum region(s) in the thickness direction of the layer region. This electrophotographic photosensitive member can be improved in charging performance, can prevent image defects due to pressure mars and can form high-quality images over a long period of time.

For enhancing plasma uniformity and long-term stability so as to readily form a film with excellent uniformity of thickness and quality and with good repeatability and for suppressing occurrence of image defects and drastically increasing the yield to form a deposited film ready for volume production, particularly, a functional deposit film (for example, an amorphous semiconductor used for semiconductor devices, electrophotographic photosensitive members, photovoltaic devices, and so on) is formed in an apparatus including a reaction vessel which can be hermetically evacuated, a substrate holder in the reaction vessel, a source gas supply, a power supply for high-frequency power. An end covering member is provided at an end of each of the substrate holder, the source gas supply and the power supply.

Deposited film forming apparatus and deposited film forming method

A process for producing an electrophotographic photosensitive member comprising the steps of depositing a non-single crystal material composed basically of silicon atoms, on a cylindrical substrate in a deposition chamber, thereafter once taking the substrate with film out of the deposition chamber, then returning it to the deposition chamber, and thereafter again depositing thereon a non-single-crystal material composed basically of carbon atoms. In another embodiment, the process comprises the steps of depositing on a cylindrical substrate a photoconductive layer formed of a non-single crystal material, subjecting to surface processing the deposited film having protrusions present at its surface, and depositing on the processed surface a surface protective layer formed of a non-single-crystal material. Also disclosed is the electrophotographic photosensitive member thus obtained, and an electrophotographic apparatus having that member.

Growing community of inventors

Shizuoka, Japan

Kazuto Hosoi