The experimental results of the direct measurement of the absolute value of interaction force between the fiber probe
of a scanning near-field optical microscope (SNOM) operated in shear force mode and a sample, which were performed
using combined SNOM-atomic force microscope setup, are discussed for the out-of-resonance fiber probe excitation
mode. We demonstrate that the value of the tapping component of the total force for this mode at typical dither
amplitudes is of the order of 10nN and thus is quite comparable with the value of this force for in resonance fiber probe
excitation mode. It is also shown that for all modes this force component is essentially smaller than the usually
neglected static attraction force, which is of the order of 200 nN. The true contact nature of the tip’sample interaction
during the out of resonance mode is proven. From this, we conclude that such a detection mode is very promising for
operation in liquids, where other modes encounter great difficulties.