Provided is an electrophotographic apparatus, including an electrophotographic photosensitive member, a charging unit arranged in a non-abutment manner with respect to the electrophotographic photosensitive member, a cleaning unit or a developing unit arranged in abutment against the electrophotographic photosensitive member, and a transferring unit.

Provided is an electrophotographic apparatus, including an electrophotographic photosensitive member, a charging unit arranged in a non-abutment manner with respect to the electrophotographic photosensitive member, a cleaning unit or a developing unit arranged in abutment against the electrophotographic photosensitive member, and a transferring unit.

In an image forming apparatus in which an electrostatic image is formed on an electrophotographic photosensitive member using at least a process of a pseudo halftone formed by dots as a method of representing gradation, the electrophotographic photosensitive member is provided on a surface thereof with a plurality of recessed portions of 0.5 μm more and 5 μm or less in depth and 20 μm or more and 80 μm or less in longest diameter of an opening, when a square region of 500 μm×500 μm is arbitrarily extracted on the surface of the electrophotographic photosensitive member, in the square region, a total area of the recessed portions is 10000 μm.sup.2 or more and 90000 μm.sup.2 or less and a total area of a flat portion contained in a portion other than the recessed portion is 80000 μm.sup.2 or more and 240000 μm.sup.2 or less, and an arrangement (A) of the plurality of recessed portions is such an arrangement that an image quality lowering index (f) calculated by specific processing is 14% or less.

In an image forming apparatus in which an electrostatic image is formed on an electrophotographic photosensitive member using at least a process of a pseudo halftone formed by dots as a method of representing gradation, the electrophotographic photosensitive member is provided on a surface thereof with a plurality of recessed portions of 0.5 μm more and 5 μm or less in depth and 20 μm or more and 80 μm or less in longest diameter of an opening, when a square region of 500 μm×500 μm is arbitrarily extracted on the surface of the electrophotographic photosensitive member, in the square region, a total area of the recessed portions is 10000 μm.sup.2 or more and 90000 μm.sup.2 or less and a total area of a flat portion contained in a portion other than the recessed portion is 80000 μm.sup.2 or more and 240000 μm.sup.2 or less, and an arrangement (A) of the plurality of recessed portions is such an arrangement that an image quality lowering index (f) calculated by specific processing is 14% or less.

A support, a conductive layer, and an intermediate layer of an electrophotographic photosensitive member have a particular surface profile. The intermediate layer is a cured film containing particles.

A conductive support for an electrophotographic photoreceptor includes a cylindrical member containing aluminum, wherein the cylindrical member has an arithmetic mean roughness Ra of 1.3 μm or less, a maximum height of roughness profile Rz of 5.0 μm or less, and a mean width of roughness profile elements RSm in an axial direction of 80 μm to 400 μm.

The present invention provides an electrophotographic member in which an increase in resistance is small even in use at low temperature and which contributes to the formation of a high quality electrophotographic image, and a process cartridge and an electrophotographic apparatus using this electrophotographic member as a charging member or a developer carrying member. Therefore, the electrophotographic member of the present invention is an electrophotographic member including an electro-conductive mandrel and an electro-conductive layer, wherein the electro-conductive layer includes a urethane resin and an ion-conductive agent, the urethane resin has, between two adjacent urethane bonds, a structure represented by formula (1) and at least one structure selected from the group consisting of a structure represented by formula (2) and a structure represented by formula (3), and the ion-conductive agent contains a particular anion.

An electrophotographic photoreceptor includes a conductive substrate and a single-layer-type photosensitive layer on the conductive substrate. The single-layer-type photosensitive layer contains a binder resin, a charge generating material, an electron transporting material, and a hole transporting material. The single-layer-type photosensitive layer has a concentration ratio (A/B) of 0.7 or more and 1.0 or less, where the concentration ratio (A/B) is a ratio of a concentration A of the electron transporting material relative to the binder resin measured from a surface of the photosensitive layer remote from the conductive substrate to a concentration B of the electron transporting material relative to the binder resin measured from a surface of the photosensitive layer close to the conductive substrate.

A method for producing a metal cylinder includes preparing a metal slug having a surface adjusted so that the crystal grain diameter at a depth of 10 μm from the surface is smaller than that at a depth of 100 μm from the surface, and the crystal grain diameter at a depth of 10 μm from the surface is 30 μm or more and 120 μm or less; and forming a cylinder by impact pressing of the metal slug having the surface as a bottom.

Techniques, systems, and devices are disclosed for implementing a photoconductive device performing bulk conduction. In one exemplary aspect, a photoconductive device is disclosed. The device includes a light source configured to emit light; a crystalline material positioned to receive the light from the light source, wherein the crystalline material is doped with a dopant that forms a mid-gap state within a bandgap of the crystalline material to control a recombination time of the crystalline material; a first electrode coupled to the crystalline material to provide a first electrical contact for the crystalline material, and a second electrode coupled to the crystalline material to provide a second electrical contact for the crystalline material, wherein the first and the second electrodes are configured to establish an electric field across the crystalline material, and the crystalline material is configured to exhibit a substantially linear transconductance in response to receiving the light.