The invention relates to a method of using an atomic force microscope and to a microscope. The inventive method comprises the following steps consisting in at least performing bimodal excitation of a microlever (M) which is disposed on a sample and analysing at least: the variation in the oscillation amplitude (Ai) of an output signal (Ai cos(ωit−φi)) that is representative of the response from the microlever (M) to the excitation of one of the natural vibration modes thereof, in order to obtain topographic information in relation to the sample; and to the variation in the phase (φj) of an output signal (Aj cos(ωjt−φj)) that is representative of the response from the microlever (M) to the excitation of another natural vibration mode thereof, in order to obtain compositional information in relation to the sample. The inventive microscope is adapted to be used with the aforementioned method.