Patent ID: 8813261

Claim:
A scanning probe microscope comprising: a scanning probe microscope unit section including, a cantilever having a probe at a tip thereof, a cantilever holder configured to fix the cantilever, a sample holder on which a sample is configured to be placed, a horizontal fine transfer mechanism configured to relatively scan a surface of the sample with the probe, a vertical fine transfer mechanism configured to control a distance between the probe and the sample surface, a horizontal coarse transfer mechanism and a vertical coarse transfer mechanism which are larger in operation range than the horizontal fine transfer mechanism and the vertical fine transfer mechanism, and an optical microscope configured to observe the cantilever and the sample; a control device configured to control the scanning probe microscope; an imaging device having an observation axis non-coaxial with an optical axis of the optical microscope, and to which a viewing field, which is wider than that of the optical microscope and capable of observing the cantilever and the sample at the same time, can be set; and an image display device including a first image display configured to display an image observed by the optical microscope and a second image display configured to display an image observed by the imaging device.