Claims Analysis
Total Claims: 7
Claim 1
Independent Claim
193 words
An electrophotographic member having a support (1) and a photoconductor layer (2) on the support principally formed of amorphous silicon, characterized in that said amorphous silicon contains at least 50 atomic-% silicon and at least 1 atomic-% hydrogen on average within said layer (2), and that a surface part (23,25) of said layer which is at least 10 nm thick and extends from a surface of said layer towards the interior thereof has a hydrogen content of at least 1 atomic-% and at most 40 atomic-%, has an optical forbidden band gap of at least 1.3 eV and at most 2.5 eV and has an infrared absorption spectrum in which the intensity of at least one of the peaks centered approximately at the wave numbers 2,200 cm -1 , 1,140 cm -1 , 1,0 4 0 cm -1 , 650 cm -1 , 860 cm -1 and 800 cm -1 and attributed to bonds between silicon and oxygen does not exceed 20% of the intensity of the more intense of the two peaks centered approximately at wave numbers 2,000 cm -1 and 2,100 cm -1 and attributed to bonds between silicon and hydrogen.
Claim 2
Dependent Claim
193 words
An electrophotographic member having a support (1) and a photoconductor layer (2) on the support principally formed of amorphous silicon, characterized in that said amorphous silicon contains at least 50 atomic-% silicon and at least 1 atomic-% hydrogen on average within said layer (2), and that a surface part (23,25) of said layer which is at least 10 nm thick and extends from a surface of said layer towards the interior thereof has a hydrogen content of at least 1 atomic-% and at most 40 atomic-%, has an optical forbidden band gap of at least 1.3 eV and at most 2.5 eV and has an infrared absorption spectrum in which the intensity of at least one of the peaks centered approximately at the wave numbers 2,200 cm -1 , 1,140 cm -1 , 1,0 4 0 cm -1 , 650 cm -1 , 860 cm -1 and 800 cm -1 and attributed to bonds between silicon and oxygen does not exceed 20% of the intensity of the more intense of the two peaks centered approximately at wave numbers 2,000 cm -1 and 2,100 cm -1 and attributed to bonds between silicon and hydrogen.
Claim 3
Dependent Claim
20 words
An electrophotographic member according to claim 1 wherein said amorphous silicon layer contains at least one of germanium and carbon.
Claim 4
Dependent Claim
60 words
An electrophotographic member according to claim 1 or claim 2, wherein said amorphous silicon layer consists of at least three superimposed layers, of which both a top layer (25) and a bottom layer (23) constitute a said surface layer at least 10 nm thick and having the hydrogen content, optical forbidden band gap and infrared spectrum defined in claim 1.
Claim 5
Dependent Claim
28 words
An electrophotographic member according to any one of claims 1 to 3, wherein the or each said surface part has a resistivity of at least 10 10 Ω.cm.
Claim 6
Dependent Claim
29 words
An electrophotographic member according to any one of claims 1 to 4, wherein said amorphous silicon layer is formed by a reactive sputtering process in an atmosphere containing hydrogen.
Claim 7
Dependent Claim
15 words
Electrophotographic apparatus including at least one electrophotographic member according to any one of the.preceding claims.