We report the drastic growth yield enhancement of carbon nanotubes (CNT) on Inconel 600 metal substrate which contains catalytic components through the surface pretreatments combining thermal annealing and plasma ion bombardment. We comparatively investigated the effect of different substrate pretreatments of air annealing, plasma treatment, and their combination affecting CNT growth yield. The roughness of the substrates was significantly enhanced by the air annealing at 725 degrees C but reduced after the following plasma treatment, which produce nano-sized particle structures. Finally, a significant enhancement in the CNT growth yield was observed when the Inconel 600 substrate was undergone the pretreatment, which consists of oxidative annealing and subsequent plasma treatment. (C) 2013 Elsevier B. V. All rights reserved.