High energy medium-light ion implantation was applied on both z-cut Er:LiNbO3 and Er3+–Yb3+ co-doped phosphate glasses, in order to fabricate optical waveguides on optically amplifying media.Preliminary results obtained with Er:LiNbO3, implanted with 3.9 MeV Carbon ions, have demonstrated the possibility to fabricate good quality waveguides, the optical characteristics of which depend on implantation fluence and post-annealing process. Er3+–Yb3+ co-doped phosphate glass substrates were implanted with both 2.8 MeV Carbon ions, at fluences ranging from 3 × 1014 ions/cm2 to 1 × 1015 ions/cm2, and with 3.4 MeV Oxygen ions at a fluence of 1 × 1015 ions/cm2. Also in this case, planar optical waveguides were formed, but, under the as-reported implantation conditions, the possibility to tailor the refractive index profiles was very reduced. In this work, the optical properties of the integrated optical …