PHOTOCARRIER GENERATION IN A LAYERED ORGANIC PHOTORECEPTOR CONTAINING AZO PIGMENT

Studies have been made on photocarrier generation which is caused in a highly sensitive layered organic photoreceptor for electrophotography and produces a photoinduced discharge. A series of experiments has been carried out on a layered photoreceptor which has a carrier generation layer (CGL) containing a fluorenone bisazo pigment as the main component. As a result, we have found that (1) excitons are produced in the bulk of the CGL by photon absorption, (2) the excitons dissociate into free carries (negative electrons and positive holes) at the interface between the CGL and a carrier transport layer (CTL), and (3) the positive holes are immediately injected into the CTL, so that few free carriers recombine.