Catalytic chemical vapor deposition (CCVD) with different activation modes (thermal; hot filaments-enhanced; direct current plasma-enhanced and both hot filament and direct current plasma-enhanced) are achieved in order to grow vertically aligned carbon nanotubes (VA CNTs). By widely varying the power of the different activation sources of the gas (plasma, hot filaments, substrate heating) while keeping identical the substrate temperature (973 K) and the catalyst preparation, the results point out the important role of ions in the nucleation of carbon nanotubes (CNTs), as well as the etching behaviour of highly activated radicals such as H-center dot in the selective growth of vertically aligned films of CNTs. Moreover, it is demonstrated that, within the deposition conditions (temperature, pressure, flow rate) used in this study, oriented carbon nanotubes can be grown only when both ions, mainly generated by the gas discharge plasma, and highly reactive radicals, mainly formed by the hot filaments, are produced in the gas phase. We propose that highly energetic ions are needed to nucleate the carbon nanotubes by increasing the carbon concentration gradient whereas the highly reactive radicals allow the selective growth of vertically aligned CNTs by preventing carbon deposition on the whole surface through chemical etching of edge carbons in graphene sheets. (c) 2005 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.