Morphologies of bamboo-shaped multiwalled carbon nanotubes (BS-MWNTs) grown on Fe catalyst deposited onto SiO2/Ti substrates by thermal chemical vapor deposition were investigated by means of atomic force microscopy (AFM) and lateral force microscopy (LFM). For the structural speciality, the bamboo structures were more distinctly observed by LFM. (c) 2005 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.