Different growth stages and the microstructure of amorphous CuTi films are investigated by scanning tunneling microscopy and small angle neutron scattering. During film growth at room temperature, the initially smooth films show increasing surface roughening and finally a change to a columnar growth mode with column diameters of about 20 nm. The interfacial energies associated with the column boundaries are higher than those of grain boundaries in crystalline systems. The column boundaries might be the origin of high intrinsic tensile stresses measured before in the amorphous CuTi films. ©1997 American Institute of Physics.