Nanocarbon films have been successfully grown on Si wafers assisted by the silica-ball self-assembly technique. The diameter of the used silica balls is about 100 nm, and the carbon deposition was performed in a simplified hot filament chemical vapor deposition (SHFCVD) system. The as-deposited carbon films present a clearly periodic nanoarray structure. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM), Raman spectroscopy and transmission electron microscopy (TEM) were employed to characterize films' microstructure features, and the field emission measurement results reveal that such nanocarbon films have better electron emission properties. (c) 2004 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.