During the past decade the area of near-field optics has seen an expon
ential growth. This is a result of the resolution of the technical pro
blems that had prevented the potential of this powerful optical method
ology from being generally applied. As a result of committed and stead
y progress in resolving these technical problems the fundamental princ
iples of near-field optics are now generally accepted and the technolo
gy is widely used. The potential of these advances has important impli
cations in a variety of areas, from chemistry to information storage t
o the characterization of structures with potential in fundamental mes
oscopic physics, and in the characterization of practical devices in e
lectronics and photonics which are rapidly reaching nanometer dimensio
nalities. In this paper, the progress that has been made in Jerusalem
in developing a near-field microscope fully integrated with convention
al far-field, confocal far-field, and all forms of force and other sca
nned probe microscopies will be described. The potential of this uniqu
e imaging system in chemical applications is also discussed.