Well-dispersed and uniform one-dimensional needle-like SrAl 2 O 4 :Ce 3+ , Eu 2+ , Tb 3+ nanostructures have been fabricated in high yield by a hydrothermal method. The possible growth mechanism of Ln doped SrAl 2 O 4 nanostructures was proposed. Varying the dopants leads to different optical properties, which demonstrates that the obtained SrAl 2 O 4 nanostructures are good host materials for different lanthanides. In particular, the green and blue emission which originated from the high energy transfer efficiency of doped SrAl 2 O 4 nanostructures was observed, which shows that the as-prepared nanophosphors are promising candidates for applications such as optical amplifiers, especially as fluorescent labels for biomolecules.