Recently we have migrated into the area of nano photonics. We discovered that a certain C-shaped aperture with dimensions much smaller than the wavelength of light can transmit 1000 x more photons than an equivalent square or round aperture, while still producing a near-field sub-wavelength spot at least 10x smaller than the wavelength of the light passing through the hole.
An example of an array of such efficient apertures is shown in the above picture.