Electrostatic information recording medium and electrostatic information recording and reproducing method

An electrostatic information recording medium (3) in which a charge retaining layer (11) having high insula­ting properties is laminated on an electrode (13) is disclosed, as is an electrostatic information recording/­reproducing process wherein, while the electrostatic information recording medium (3) is positioned in oppo­sition to a photosensitive member (1) in which a photo­conductive layer (2) is laminated on a transparent electrode (7), the recording medium (3) is subjected to information exposure with the application of voltage (1 7) between the electrodes (13 and 7) to accumulate electrostatic charges thereon depending upon the dosage of said informa­tion exposure, and the electrostatic information thus accumulated is reproduced by potential reading. The electrostatic information recording medium (3) has an information density as expressed in terms of a high recording capacity of the order of 8 × 10⁸ bits/cm², and makes it possible to process information in a planar state so that analog or digital information such as characters, line pictures, images, (0.1) informa­tion and sounds can be accumulated in the form of electro­static charges. With this electrostatic information recording medium (3), it is possible to obtain information of high quality and resolving power because of the inform­ ation being accumulable in electrostatic charge units. Due to its high charge retainability, it is further poss­ible to store information permanently. Still further, it is possible to make inexpensive and simple recording/­reproducing systems, since information can be output by reading local potentials of electrostatic latent images at any time and any scanning density.