Bismuth germanate glasses doped with a series of different concentrations of trivalent dysprosium ions were synthesized using melt-quenching method. The complex glass network is characterized by Raman spectrum, to put in evidence a structure combining [BiO3] pyramidal units, [BiO6] octahedral units and [GeO4] tetrahedral units. The arrangement of these structural units attract the introduction of Dy3+ ions thanks and endow the bismuth glass with the efficiently broadband mid-infrared emission. Upon the excitation source of an 808 nm laser diode, a flat and broad emission from 2.5 mu m to 3.2 mu m with a bandwidth of 374 nm was obtained in a 1.0 mol% Dy2O3 doped glass, which corresponds to H-6(13/2) -> H-6(15/2) transition. The emission cross section around 2.9 mu m is estimated to be 7.78 x 10(-21) cm(2) based on the fluorescence spectrum. Hence, the advantageous spectroscopic characteristics reveal that Dy3+ doped bismuth gernamate glass is a potential cost effective host for the mid-infrared solid state lasers. (C) 2016 Published by Elsevier Ltd.