A new and simple wet chemical synthesis method is proposed to prepare submicron-sized Erbium-doped LiNbO3 powders. The synthesis procedure comprises the co-precipitation of lithium and erbium ions from common precursors and their subsequent reaction with niobium ethoxide. A systematic characterization by means of X-Ray Diffraction (XRD), X-ray Fluorescence (XRF), Inductively Coupled Plasma (ICP-OES), Atomic Absorption (AAS), Field Emission Scanning Electron Microscopy (FE-SEM), as well as by the examination of the luminescence properties, evidence that with this method a congruent Er3+-doped LiNbO3 single phase material can be obtained without using complex and time-consuming processing steps. The synthesized powders exhibit efficient IR to VIS up-conversion emissions under 974 nm pumping. (C) 2012 Elsevier BM. All rights reserved.