AbstractDuring the past decade the area of near‐field optics has seen an exponential growth. This is a result of the resolution of the technical problems that had prevented the potential of this powerful optical methodology from being generally applied. As a result of committed and steady progress in resolving these technical problems the fundamental principles of near‐field optics are now generally accepted and the technology is widely used. The potential of these advances has important implications in a variety of areas, from chemistry to information storage to the characterization of structures with potential in fundamental mesoscopic physics, and in the characterization of practical devices in electronics and photonics which are rapidly reaching nanometer dimensionalities. In this paper, the progress that has been made in Jerusalem in developing a near‐field microscope fully integrated with conventional far‐field, confocal far‐field, and all forms of force and other scanned probe microscopies will be described. The potential of this unique imaging system in chemical applications is also