A near field optical scanning probe microscope with force regulation is presented. The microscope force regulation uses a differential interferometer for monitoring the tip frequency while the tip provides a sub-wavelength aperture providing a system which simultaneously records topographical information (by the force microscope) and an optical image. The flexibility of the system is evident in the specific applications pursued in this research. Simultaneous force and luminescence images derived from the investigation of porous silicon are presented. We observed variation in luminescence over sub-micron distances. Furthermore, variation in the spectral distribution of small particles of porous silicon was also observed. Both these results support the quantum wire theory proposed to explain the luminescence properties of the porous silicon and its formation. The same system was slightly reconfigured to provide imaging of thermal properties of microcircuitry. The imaging was performed by detecting changes in reflectivity as a function of temperature. The first near field photothermal probe microscope is demostrated along with a simultaneous scanning force microscope. The system shows high resolution of thermal signal, but needs some noise reduction techniques to improve image quality
