ABSTRACTCarbon nanotubes on metallic wires may be act as electrode for the field emission (FE) luminescent devices. Growing nanotubes on metallic wires with controlled density, length and alignment are challenging issues for this kind of devices. We, in the present investigation grow carbon nanotubes directly on the metal wires by a powerful but simple technique. A novel approach has been proposed to align nanotubes during growth. Methane, acetylene and dimethylamine have been used as source gases. With the same growth conditions (viz. pressure, growth temperature and plasma) methane does not produce any nanotube but nanotubes grown with dimethylamine show shorter length and radius than acetylene. The effect of temperature to control the radius, time to control the density, plasma conditions to align the nanotubes has been focused. Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM), Transmission Electron Microscopy (TEM) and Rutherford Back Scattering (RBS) are used to characterize the nanotubes.