Sm3+-doped bismuthate glass has been synthesized by means of the classic melt-quenching technique. Its optical properties were characterized, which included refractive index, absorption and fluorescence spectra. The measured data suggest that the Sm3+-doped bismuthate glass is suitable for optoelectronic applications. A Sm3+-doped bismuthate glass waveguide operating at 1.539 mu m has been manufactured by using the proton implantation with a 0.4 MeV energy and a 8.0 x 10(16) ions.cm(-2) fluence for the first time to our knowledge. The effective refractive indices of the propagation modes for the glass waveguide were obtained by the m-line technique. The energy loss caused by the collision of the irradiated protons and the nuclei of the target Sm3+-doped bismuthate glass was calculated by the SRIM 2013. The refractive index profile and the near-field guided mode distribution for the waveguide structure were fitted through the reflectivity calculation method (RCM) and the FD-BPM method, respectively. The proton-implanted Sm3+-doped bismuthate glass waveguide is an alternative for an integrated device in the telecommunication band.