CLEANING BLADE, CLEANING DEVICE, PROCESS CARTRIDGE, AND IMAGE FORMING APPARATUS

To provide a cleaning blade that prevents unevenness in density of an image and a streak-like image defect.SOLUTION: A cleaning blade has a carbon-containing layer 14 from a contact part 3A that is in contact with a member to be cleaned to an opposing surface 3B that is on an upstream side in a driving direction of the member to be cleaned and opposite to the member to be cleaned, and in the carbon-containing layer, a sp2/sp3 content ratio A1 within an area 100 μm from the contact part is larger than a sp2/sp3 content ratio A2 in an area separated by 300 μm or more from the contact part (A1>A2).SELECTED DRAWING: Figure 3 【課題】画像の濃度ムラ及び筋状の画像欠陥が抑制されるクリーニングブレードを提供する。【解決手段】被クリーニング部材と接触する接触部３Ａから、被クリーニング部材の駆動方向上流側で、被クリーニング部材と対向する対向面３Ｂに、炭素含有層１４を有し、炭素含有層は、接触部から１００μｍ以内の領域におけるｓｐ２／ｓｐ３含有比Ａ１が、接触部から３００μｍ以上離れた領域のｓｐ２／ｓｐ３含有比Ａ２よりも大きい（Ａ１＞Ａ２）、クリーニングブレードである。【選択図】図３