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Bismuth is one of the most thoroughly investigated main group elements, which has been regarded as ‘the wonder metal’ because of its diverse oxidation states and profound propensities to form bismuth clusters, resulting from the easy involvement in chemical combinations for the electrons in the p orbital. This peculiarity allows them to behave as smart optically active centers in diverse host materials. Remarkable progress in the research of bismuth activated photonic materials has been seen over the last ten years owing to their unique properties and important applications in areas of telecommunication, biomedicine, white light illumination and lasers. The aim of this review is to present a critical overview of the current state of the art in bismuth activated photonic materials, their features, advantages and limitations as well as the future research trends. We first shortly introduce the fundamental properties of bismuth …