In this work, the role of europium doping of glasses formulated in the ternary system ZnO-CdO-TeO 2 is described. The Eu-doped oxide glasses were prepared by the conventional melt-quenching method and by using three different compositions. Structural studies reveal that there exists a good affinity between Cd and some rare earth (RE) ions to form the crystalline phase. The X-ray diffraction (XRD) diagrams display that the structure of these glasses is amorphous and with the increase in CdO content and the compatibility of Eu 3+ , there is a tendency to form nanocrystals of CdTe 2 O 5 . The scanning electron microscopic (SEM) observation of their microstructure confirms the presence of phase separation. Differential thermal analysis (DTA) of these glasses showed small exothermic peaks noted around 450°C for the V2 glass and 480°C for V1 and V3 glasses, which could be attributed to the formation of these crystals. The infrared spectra showed a main absorption band around 800-600 cm À1 corresponding to the Te-O stretching mode in TeO 4 and TeO 3 groups. By optical absorption (OA), the band gap (E g ) for each glass was determined; these values were 3.27, 3.14, and 3.3 eV for the V1-V3 glasses, respectively. Furthermore, the presence of Eu 3+ was detected in the 370-470 nm short-range wavelengths. The photoluminescence (PL) experiments of the glasses showed light emission due to the following transitions: