Zirconia-Erbium doped Fibers are a novel type of highly-doped fiber that allows high erbium ion concentrations to be realized in a short length of fiber without the detrimental effects of ion clustering and concentration quenching. The fiber has a multitude of novel applications, including the generation of compact optical amplifiers and single-longitudinal mode lasers. A particularly interesting application of the fiber is the development of compact fast and ultrafast pulse lasers together with carbon allotropes as passive saturable absorbers. This new systems will have high potential for a large number of real-world applications such as communications, manufacturing, medicine and defense.