Method for measuring, by measurement device, characteristics of surface of object to be measured, atomic force microscope for performing same method, and computer program stored in storage medium to perform same method

An atomic force microscope configured to measure a surface of an object to be measured using a probe unit including a tip and a cantilever, the microscope comprising:

• an XY scanner configured to move the object to be measured to allow the tip to relatively move in an XY direction with respect to the surface of the object to be measured;
• a head configured to mount the probe unit, and include an optical system which measures a vibration or a flexure of the cantilever, and a Z scanner configured to move the probe unit in the Z direction to control a distance between the tip and the surface of the object to be measured, based on data obtained by the optical system;
• and
• a controller which controls the XY scanner and the head,
• wherein the controller repeatedly performs an approach step of positioning the tip to come into contact with a specific position of the surface of the object to be measured;
• and a lift step of separating the contacted tip from the surface of the object to be measured, with respect to a plurality of positions of the surface of the object to be measured, and the controller is configured to control the tip to vibrate in a portion or the entirety of the approach step and the lift step, and configured to control a movement characteristic of the tip according to the change of the vibration characteristic of the tip.