limited to the elongate form but the invention includes a bent probe for a near field optical microscope having an optical fiber triangular as viewed from above or circular in section that is sharpened and bent at the front end the cantilever 20 is provided above the stage opening 17 the cantilever 20 has a front end provided with a sharpened probe 21 and a rear end fixed to the cantilever holder 22 due to this the cantilever 20 is supported at its one end such that the front end where the probe 21 is provided serves as a free end meanwhile the cantilever 20 is to be vibrated at a predetermined frequency and amplitude along the z direction by means of vibration means not shown and further to be finely moved in xy directions relative to the stage 16 by means of the probe fine movement mechanism 26 incidentally the xy directions refer to mutually orthogonal directions that are parallel with the surface of the sample s and the stage 16 which are orthogonal to the z direction furthermore the x direction refers to a widthwise direction of the scanning probe microscope 1 while the y direction refers to a depthwise direction of the scanning probe microscope 1 meanwhile in the vicinity of the probe fine movement mechanism 26 a z rough movement mechanism 33 is provided to roughly move the cantilever 20 in the z direction the z rough movement mechanism 33 has its base 34 fixed on the base 13 of the main body 3 on the upper surface of the z rough movement mechanism 33 an xy stage 35 is provided on the upper surface of the xy stage 35 the crank mount 30 is fixed meanwhile the illuminator 5 is provided above.