Kyocera Corporation

Other

Kyoto Ceramic Kabushiki Kaisha

Kokichi Ishibitsu

Takao Kawamura

Naooki Miyamoto

Hitoshi Takemura

Hiroshi Ito

Kazumasa Ohkawa

Satoru Watanabe

Takashi Hosoi

The present invention relates to an electrophotographic sensitive member comprising a photoconductive amorphous silicon carbide layer. An amorphous silicon layer has superior abrasion resistance, heat resistance, antipollution property, photosensitive characteristic and the like. However, an amorphous silicon layer itself has a low dark resistance, so that dopants, such as boron, are added thereto but a dark resistance of 10.sup.12 .OMEGA..multidot.cm or more required for the case where it is used as an electrophotographic sensitive member has never been obtained. The present inventors have found before that an amorphous silicon carbide layer has a large carrier-mobility and photoconductivity and its dark resistance of 10.sup.13 .OMEGA..multidot.cm or more can be easily obtained regardless of the existence of dopants and furthermore an electrophotographic sensitive member, which can be positively and negatively charged by the selection of the dopants, can be obtained. The present invention provides an electrophotographic sensitive member capable of improving the photosensitive characteristics and the like to improve electrophotographic characteristics, as desired, with an a-SiC layer as a substantial photoconductive layer and substantially without requiring a surface protective layer and a barrier layer.

Electrophotographic sensitive member

Disclosed is a process for the production of a semiconductor element by introducing a gas of an organic metal compound of an element of the group III and a gas containing an element of the group V into a reaction chamber in which a substrate of a single crystal of alumina is arranged and epitaxially growing a III.V compound semiconductor by the thermal decomposition vapor deposition of the compound of the elements of the groups III.V, said process comprises, in combination, the steps of (A) heating the substrate at a temperature of 400.degree. to 550.degree. C., introducing the gas of the organic metal compound of the element of the group III and the gas containing the element of the group V into the reaction chamber and forming a film of a compound of the elements of the groups III.V on the surface of the substrate by the vapor deposition, (B) heating the substrate obtained at the step (A) at a temperature higher than 550.degree. C. but lower than 750.degree. C. and introducing the gas containing the element of the group V to anneal the film of the compound of the elements of the groups III.V, and (C) maintaining the substrate obtained at the step (B) at a temperature higher than 550.degree. C. but lower than 750.degree. C. and introducing the gas of the organic metal compound of the element of the group III and the gas containing the element of the group V to effect the vapor deposition of a compound semiconductor of the elements of the groups III.V with the film of the III.V compound film obtained at the step (B) being as the nucleus.

Gallium arsenide on sapphire heterostructure

The present invention relates to an electrophotographic sensitive member, in particular to a divided function type electrophotographic sensitive member formed of amorphous silicon and amorphous silicon carbide capable of particularly widening an optical band gap range to heighten an optical sensitivity. Stabilized operation characteristics and durability are required for an electrophotographic sensitive member drum carried on instruments such as a high-speed copying machine and a laser beam printer. As for these requirements, hydrogenized amorphous silicon is being watched with interest from the viewpoints of superior abrasion resistance, heat resistance, anti-pollution property, optical sensitive characteristic and the like. However, even multi-layer type sensitive member and a divided function type sensitive member, which have been known as an electrophotographic sensitive member formed of hydrogenized amorphous silicon, have shown problems in that in the case where they are used in the high-speed copying, a residual image, in which the preceding image remains without being completely removed by an optical memory effect and appears again with the formation of the subsequent image, occurs, and an image exposure per one time of copying is reduced by the high-speediness, whereby the sufficient optical attenuation can not be obtained and the potentiality of the sensitive member corresponding to a shading contrast of a manuscript can not be sufficiently increased, so that a background smearing is produced. The present invention aims at the obtainment of an electrophotographic sensitive member capable of solving such problems and provides an electrophotographic sensitive member capable of heightening an optical sensitivity over a wide wavelength range to obtain sufficient optical attenuation characteristics, whereby being suitable for the high-speed copying.

The present invention relates to an electrophotographic sensitive member, in particular to an electophotographic sensitive member, in which a residual potential is reduced and a background smearing is prevented from being produced, and further to an electrophotographic sensitive member capable of carrying out a high-speed copying suitable for a semiconductor laser beam printer. A photosensitive member used in instruments, such as super-high-speed coying machine and laser beam printer, is used for a long time at a high-speed, so that the stability and durability are required for the operation. To this requirement, amorphous silicon hydride has been watched with interest in view of heat-resistance, abrasion-resistance, anti-pollution, photosensitive characteristic and the like. However, also a multi-layer type photosensitive member or a separated function type photosensitive member, which has been known as an electrophotographic sensitive member formed of this amorphous silicon hydride, has shown a problem of residual image that the preceding image is not completely removed to be remained by an optical memory effect and appears again in the formation of the following image when it is used in the high-speed copying, a problem that the oscillation wavelength of laser beam is close to a near-infrared range, so that an amorphous silicon photosensitive member on the light-receiving side is inferior in photosensitive characteristic when the amorphous silicon photosensitive member is carried on the laser beam printer, and a problem that the surface potential is reduced. The present invention aims at the obtainment of an electrophotographic sensitive member from which the above described problems are eliminated.

Electrophotographic sensitive member with amorphous silicon carbide

A silicon-semiconductor type thermal head comprising a substrate of .alpha.-alumina ceramic of single crystalline sapphire a silicon layer of high electrical resistance formed on the upper surface of the substrate and exothermic dots of low electrical resistance silicon integrally formed on the high resistance silicon layer. The silicon semiconductor type thermal head is formed by forming a substrate of .alpha.-alumina ceramic of single crystalline and sapphire, forming a high resistance layer of silicon on the .alpha.-alumina ceramic, forming a layer of low resistance silicon on the high resistance layer of silicon and selectively etching the low and high resistance silicon layers to produce exothermic dots of low resistance silicon, separated from the substrate by high resistance silicon.

Growing community of inventors

Yohkaichi, Japan

Kokichi Ishibitsu