OPTICAL AND ELECTRICAL-PROPERTIES OF A-SI1-XCX-H LAYERS IN CONNECTIONWITH PROMISING ELECTROPHOTOGRAPHIC APPLICATIONS

A multifaceted study has been made of optical, structural, and electri cal properties of layers of amorphous hydrogenated silicon carbide, a- Si1-xCx:H, over the composition range 0<x<0.5. The material was produc ed from CH4+SiH4+Ar/H-2 mixtures in the plasma of an rf glow discharge . These solid solutions were studied in connection with their use in e lectrophotography. It is shown that amorphous hydrogenated silicon car bide can be used in multilayer electrophotographic layers. It can be u sed as a blocking layer (so a bicharge regime of information storage b ecomes possible), as a passivating layer (so it becomes possible to im prove the process by which charge is accumulated at the surface), and as a charge-transfer layer. The conditions for producing a-Si1-xCx:H f or each of the layers have been optimized. The results found have been pursued to the point of device (practical) realization; i.e., electro photographic prints have been obtained.