Carbon nanotips were grown from carbon film deposited on silicon substrate by plasma-enhanced hot filament chemical vapor deposition. The carbon film and carbon nanotips were investigated by scanning electron microscopy and micro-Raman spectrometry, respectively. The results indicate that the carbon film is composed of amorphous carbon and the carbon nanotips are characteristic of nanographite, and their formation and shapes depend on ion bombardment strongly. Simultaneously, the number of forming the carbon nanotips is increased by the ion bombardment. Because there are ion deposition and sputtering-etching in the process of growing of the carbon nanotips, the theory related to ion deposition and sputtering was used to obtain their formation condition and analyze effects of the ion bombardment on their shapes and the number of forming them. (C) 2007 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.