One-dimensional nanofibers of tin oxide doped with erbium can be readily prepared by a combination of sol gel condensation processing and electrospinning. Such structures are strongly emissive in the near-infrared at 1540 nm whose intensity is directly proportional to erbium concentration. A combination of electron microscopies, selected area electron diffraction, and X-ray diffraction reveal a polycrystalline structure for a given one-dimensional nanofiber whereby the erbium influences nanocrystal feature size.