Optical microscopy has always relied on spectroscopic techniques for contrast generation. The most straightforward approach is to combine it with linear techniques such as absorption and fluorescence spectroscopy. Over the last three decades, fluorescence excitation in the form of confocal fluorescence microscopy has become an important method in all cell biology laboratories. However, fluorescence microscopy also is a valuable tool in material science. Investigations of the structural dynamics of colloidal systems close to the glass transition will exemplify this. Yet, the great success of spectroscopic approaches in microscopy is not restricted to linear methods. Non-linear spectroscopy has also found ample applications in modern optical microscopy. The speaker will present non-linear Raman imaging based on stimulated Raman scattering (SRS) and discuss the vibrational imaging of unlabelled samples using various examples from material science and cellular biology. Y special emphasis will be given to the presentation of new approaches for ultrasenstive SRS microscopy.