6 pages ; International audience ; Silica microspheres were made by melting the tip of a standard telecom fiber and were coated with a 70SiO2 - 30 HfO2 sol-gel derived glass activated by 0.3 mol % of Er3+ ions. The samples were coated using a dip coating apparatus. The thickness of the coating was estimated to be around 1 μm. The whispering gallery modes of the coated resonator were studied using a full taper - microsphere coupling setup. Upon excitation at 1480 nm sharp peaks at wavelengths 1540- 1565 nm were observed. They were attributed to the whispering gallery modes of the microsphere falling in the wavelength range of the erbium emission.