We report the high-temperature growth, spectroscopic and passive waveguiding properties of crystalline Er,Yb:YAl3(BO3)(4) films grown with LPE on undoped YAl3(BO3)(4) substrates. The absorption and emission spectra and the fluorescence lifetimes have been measured. Multimode passive waveguiding has been observed in a 50-mu m-thick Er,Yb:YAB film. The propagation losses have been measured to be 2 dB/cm. (C) 2010 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.