Patent ID: 8609199

Claim:
A carbon nanotube growing process, comprising: a first plasma treatment step of treating a catalytic thin film or catalytic fine particles on a substrate surface with a plasma generated from a gas which contains at least hydrogen gas or a rare gas without carbon element, a second plasma treatment step of forming a carbon layer on the catalytic thin film or the catalytic fine particles by a plasma generated from a gas which contains at least a hydrocarbon after the first plasma treatment step, a third plasma treatment step of treating the catalytic thin film or the catalytic fine particles, on which the carbon layer is formed, with a plasma generated from a gas which contains at least a rare gas without carbon element at a treating temperature between 150° C. and 600° C. after the second plasma treatment step and before the carbon nanotube growing step, and a carbon nanotube growing step of treating the catalytic thin film or the catalytic fine particles, on which the carbon layer is formed, with a plasma generated from a gas which contains at least a hydrocarbon after the third plasma treatment step, thereby growing carbon nanotubes.