Disclosed are an optical fiber comprising a core and a cladding wherein the core is composed of a In-Ga-Cd-Pb halide glass and the clad composed of a halide glass possesses a refractive index of 1.515 or less, which has a large specific refractive index difference (.DELTA.n) and a large numerical aperture, and such an optical fiber as mentioned above wherein the core contains one or more activating ions as well as an optical fiber amplifier comprising a pumping source, a laser glass fiber and a means for introducing pumping light and signal light into the above laser glass fiber, wherein the laser glass fiber is the optical fiber of the present invention mentioned above.