In this work we explore using a carbon monoxide (CO) laser towards specialty optical fiber fabrication specifically targeting the use of unconventional core materials, such as semiconductors as well as other crystalline materials, surrounded by a silica glass cladding. With laser heating there is a near instantaneous temperature response with a change in laser power. Highly localized heating minimizes overall thermal exposure reducing the duration that the core and cladding material interact at elevated temperatures. Localized heating also results in large temperature gradient across the liquid-solid interface, which is beneficial for crystallization kinetics. Compared to using CO2-lasers, the radiation from the CO-laser, which operates at 5.5 μm, has a much larger penetration depth in silica resulting in energy being deposited further into the material. This enables a more homogeneous transverse temperature distribution as well as a higher average temperature while minimizing surface vaporization. This talk covers the results from recent work using a CO laser for the fabrication of hybrid material optical fibers.