In this work, we report the fabrication of an optical waveguide by single-energy H+ ion implantation in the Er3+-doped phosphate glass. The ion implantation conditions are with energy of 0.4 MeV and a fluence of 8.0×1016 ions/cm2. The dark mode spectrum of the waveguide structure was measured by the prism coupling experiment. The refractive index change along with the penetration depth was fitted by using the reflectivity calculation method (RCM). Finally, the calculated near-field light intensity distribution shows superior waveguide properties, which demonstrates its promising potentials for compact optical integrated devices. © 2019, Tianjin University of Technology and Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature.