Improved stimulated Raman spectroscopy is provided by replacing the Stokes (or anti-Stokes) optical source with a localized electromagnetic emitter that is excited with a non-electromagnetic excitation. Such a localized emitter can be an efficient Stokes (or anti-Stokes) source for stimulated Raman spectroscopy, and can also provide deep sub-wavelength spatial resolution. In a preferred embodiment, an electron beam from an electron microscope is used to excite the localized emitter. This provides combined Raman imaging and electron microscopy that has the two imaging modalities inherently registered with each other.