Ferroic materials at the nanoscale reveal new properties and functionalities as such they are recognized as extremely promising materials from both fundamental and application point of view. One of the major tool used to advance studies of ferroic thin films is the atomic force probe microscopy (AFM). In the present work, we study the synthesis, fabrication, processing, and characterization of carbon nanotube (CNT) scanning probes with a further application to ferroic thin film. Our main results include both experimental and theoretical studies of ultra-high resolution magnetic force microscopy imaging of spin nanostructures of soft magnetic materials with ferromagnetically-coated CNT probes, transport measurements of dielectric-coated-CNT AFM probes, and piezoresponse force microscopy studies of switching dynamics in ferroelectric thin films. Notably, we performed the non-perturbative imaging of spin nanostructures with a resolution higher than that of X-ray microscopy, and at ambient conditions.