Heavily magnesium and erbium codoped lithium niobate (Mg:Er:LiNbO3) has been grown by Czochralski method. The crystal exhibits strong resistance to photorefractive effect and shows characteristic luminescence of Er ion at similar to1540 nm. The transient measurement has shown a single-exponential decay of the emission with a lifetime of similar to5 ms. Green up-conversion emission at similar to550 nm has been studied at 980 nm excitation. The lifetime of the emission was derived from the transient measurement to be similar to35 mus. Analysis has shown that the excited state absorption (ESA) is the dominant contribution to the up-conversion process and clustering and pairing of Er ions have been effectively avoided in Mg:Er:LiNbO3 crystal. (C) 2002 Published by Elsevier Science B.V.