Single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWNT) were produced using binary mixtures of the platinum-group metals as catalysts by are evaporation in helium gas. Transmission electron microscopy and Raman scattering spectroscopy revealed that the production yield of SWNTs was remarkably enhanced when a Rh-Pt mixture was used as a catalyst. The density of SWNTs in raw soot was as high as that obtained from Fe-Ni and Y-Ni. The distribution of diameters of SWNTs was narrow (1.28 +/- 0.07 nm). The merit of this catalyst is that it is free from magnetic metals. (C) 1998 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.