The evolution of surface morphologies of films prepared by ion‐based deposition techniques has been investigated by atomic force microscopy. Two deposition processes, filtered arc deposition (FAD) and ion‐beam‐assisted deposition, where low‐energy (<100 eV) ion irradiation and high‐energy (several tens of keV) ion‐beam bombardment concurrent with film growth were involved, respectively, have been employed to prepare TiN and Al films. Comparative studies on the effect of energetic ions on the development of topography have been performed between the low‐ion‐energy regime and high‐ion‐energy regime. In addition, the relationship between topography and mechanical properties of thin films has been revealed, by involving thin films prepared by thermal evaporation deposition (TED), where almost all depositing particles are neutral. In the images of the TED TiN and Al films, a large number of porous and deep boundaries between columnar grains was observed, suggesting a very rough and loose surface. In contrast, the FAD films exhibited much denser surface morphologies, although still columnar. The root‐mean‐square roughness of the FAD films was less than 1 A˚. Hardness test and optical parameter measurement indicated that the FAD films were much harder and, in the case of optical films, much more transparent than the TED films, which was considered to arise from the denser surface morphologies rather than crystallization of the films. The high density and super smoothness of the FAD films, and the resultant mechanical and optical properties superior to those of the TED films, were attributed to the enhancement of surface migration of the deposited adatoms in the FAD process, which could provide intensive low‐energy ion irradiation during film growth. As for topography modification by high‐energy ion‐beam bombardment concurrent with film growth, in addition to the increase of surface diffusion due to elastic collision and thermal spikes, physical sputtering must be considered while explaining the development of the film topography. Both surface migration enhancement and sputtering played important roles in the case of high‐energy heavy‐ion‐beam bombardment, under which condition surface morphology characterized by dense columns with larger dimension and deep clean boundaries was formed. However, under high‐energy light‐ion‐beam bombardment, the sputtering was dominant, and the variation of sputtering coefficient with position on the surface of growing film led to the formation of cones. ©1996 American Institute of Physics.