Novel sp(3) rich diamond-like carbon nanorod films were fabricated by a hot filament chemical vapour deposition technique. The results are indicative of a bottom-up synthesis process, which results in a hierarchical structure that consists of microscale papillae comprising numerous nanorods. The papillae have diameters ranging from 2 to 4 microm and the nanorods have diameters in the 35-45 nm range. A growth mechanism based on the vapour-liquid-solid mechanism is proposed that accounts for the morphological aspects at the microscale and nanoscale. Investigation of field emission properties of fabricated nanorods reveals a low turn-on field of about 4.9 V microm( - 1) at 1 nA and a high field-enhancement factor.