  We develop a theory of light transmission through an aperture-type near-field
optical probe with a dissipative matter in its semiconducting core described by
a complex frequency-dependent dielectric function. We evaluate the near-field
transmission coefficient of a metallized silicon probe with a large taper angle
of in the visible and near-infrared wavelength range. It is shown that in this
spectral range the use of a short silicon probe instead of a glass one allows
to achieve a strong (up to 10$^2-10^{3}$) enhancement in the transmission
efficiency.
