Nanoscale chemical identification of objects below the diffraction limit is possible using a scanned probe technique, the Scanning Near-Field Infrared Microscope (SNFIM). In most cases vibrational spectroscopy in the infrared region is restricted due to the limitations of beam focusing to samples of macroscopic dimensions, on the order of one to several microns. The scale of the measured area is completely determined by the diffraction limit of the incident radiation. With a scanned probe technique resolution of chemical features on the order of @lambda@/20 or ~100 nm can be achieved. An overview of previous experimental results using a free electron laser (FEL)@footnote 1@@super,@@footnote 2@, and more conventional infrared sources@footnote 3@@super,@@footnote 4@, will be discussed. A description of the experiment and recent results from the SNFIM at the Jefferson Lab Free Electron Laser facility will be presented. This work was supported by U.S. DOE Contract No. DE-AC05-84-ER40150, ONR Contract No. N00014-99-1-09B, the Commonwealth of Virginia and the Laser Processing Consortium. @FootnoteText@ @footnote 1@ A. Piednoir, C. Licope, and F. Creuzet, Opt. Commun. 129, 414 (1996). @footnote 2@ M. K. Hong, A. G. Jeung, N. V. Dokholyan, T. I. Smith, H. A. Schwettman, P. Huie and S. Erramilli, Nucl. Instrum. Methods Phys. Res. B 144, 246 (1998). @footnote 3@ B. Knoll and F. Keilmann, Nature 399, 134 (1999). @footnote 4@ C. A. Michaels, S. J. Stranick, L. J. Richter, and R. R. Cavanaugh, J. Appl. Phys. 88, 4832 (2000).