We present a methodology that allowed us to prepare 400–800μm diameter, 3cm long colorless and transparent LaAlO 3 single crystal fibers by the laser-heated pedestal growth technique. This technique consists of growing LaAlO 3 fibers from pedestals prepared with a mixture of appropriate amounts of metal oxides without a prior chemical reaction. We also show that the use of prereacted and annealed pedestals produces dark fibers. LaAlO 3 fibers prepared from different La/Al ratio were studied. Pedestals with La/Al⩽1 resulted in fibers with Al rich-phase microscopic inclusions. Fibers grown from La/Al>1 were colorless, inclusion-free and transparent throughout their entire length. We also obtained transparent LaAlO 3 fibers from prereacted and high-temperature (1400°C) annealed pedestals, although the fibers were brownish in color. The fiber/pedestal pulling ratio ranged from 0.9 to 1.1. The fiber growth direction was 〈11¯1¯〉. The crystal structure symmetry obtained for LaAlO 3 was R3¯c with a cell parameter of a=b=5.368(3)Å and c=13.12(4)Å. Optical and electron microscopy were used to characterize the fibers and the crystal/liquid interface.