Carbon nanostructures (CN) have been selectively grown directly onto the top of nickel ion implanted nanopyramid array (Ni NPA) by the plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition (p-CVD) technique. Firstly, NPA were fabricated by taking advantage of the anisotropic etching characteristics of silicon in hydrazine (N2H4H2O); where the ion implanted area acted as a mask for hydrazine etching. Secondly, carbon nanostructures were grown on Ni NPA by feeding methane/hydrogen (CH4/H-2) mixtures into p-CVD reactor. The change of concentration ratio of methane to hydrogen dramatically affected the growth selectivity of CN. Methane concentrations lower than 20%, promoted the selective growth of CN on the top of Ni NPA. Morphology and chemical nature of grown species were studied by employing scanning electron microscopy (SEM), and energy dispersive X-ray (EDX) spectroscopy, respectively. (C) 2004 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.