PURPOSE: To produce the extremely sharp probe having a small radius of curva ture at its tip.

CONSTITUTION: The tip of a probe body 21 of the cantilever probe for a commercially marketed AFM is irradiated with an electron beam 23 in a vacuum from the direction perpendicular to its axial central direction 22, by which a wire- shaped deposit of carbon extending in the axial central direction is formed at the tip of the probe body 21 (B). The deposit 24 is irradiated with the electron beam 23 from the axial central direction, by which the carbon is deposited thereon to thicken the deposit (C). The end face of the deposit 24 is circularly scanned at 1μm diameter and is chipped by an ion beam 25 of 0.4μm diameter to make the tip part finer (D). The tip part is further cut by reducing the circular scanning diameter to 0.5μm to form a needle-like part (E).