Chalcogenides are materials that substantially consist of sulphur, selenium, and tellurium. Their dielectric properties can be tuned by thermally induced structural phase transitions, photostructural transitions, and dissolution of metal dopants. We have designed active photonic structures using a range of 'tuneable' chalcogenides. The resonant frequency of plasmonic structures was tuned over a 100 nm band in the visible, metal-chalcogenidemetal structures provide tuning of over a band of 0.5 μm in the mid-infrared, and hyperbolic metamaterials incorporating chalcogenides provide a means to alter the radiative decay rate of uorescent photons. © 2017 SPIE.