The characteristics emission lines from the rare-earth element europium implanted with 400 keV ions at a dose of 1 × 10 16 atoms cm −2 have been investigated by cathodoluminescence as a function of anneal temperature. Thermal annealing was used to optically activate the europium. Thermal annealing at temperatures from 100°C to 1000°C increases the CL intensity by a factor of 40 and 7 for Al 2O 3 and silica respectively. For temperatures above 1000°C the intensity decreases extremely rapidly as a result of Eu precipitation into non-radiative clusters. No saturation is observed for float-glass for annealing temperature up to 500°C. The projected range and range straggling for the as-implanted Al 2O 3 and silica samples were measured using the RBS method. The values extracted from the RBS are compared with those simulated by TRIM and SUSPRE computer algorithms. Experimental results seem to be in good agreement with TRIM and SUSPRE predictions. After annealing no noticeable diffusion of Eu for any samples was detected using the RBS. Results from subsequent excimer laser annealing are mentioned.