  The problem of an accurate tip radius and shape characterization is very
important for determination of surface mechanical and chemical properties on
the basis of the scanning probe microscopy measurements. We think that the most
favorable methods for this purpose are blind tip reconstruction methods, since
they do not need any calibrated characterizers and might be performed on an
ordinary SPM setup. As in many other inverse problems also in case of these
methods the stability of the solution in presence of vibrational and electronic
noise needs application of so called regularization techniques. In this paper
the novel regularization technique (Regularized Blind Tip Reconstruction -
RBTR) for blind tip reconstruction algorithm is presented. It improves the
quality of the solution in presence of isotropic and anisotropic noise. The
superiority of our approach is proved on the basis of computer simulations and
analysis of images of the Budget Sensors TipCheck calibration standard. In case
of characterization of real AFM probes as a reference method the high
resolution scanning electron microscopy was chosen and we obtain good
qualitative correspondence of both methods.
