In the present work, we have analyzed the use of elliptical beam shaping along with low numerical aperture focusing optics in order to produce circular cross-section waveguides in different materials at large processing depths by direct femtosecond laser writing (100 fs, 800 nm, 1 kHz). A variable slit located before the focusing optics allows to generate a nearly elliptical beam shape and also to reduce the effective numerical aperture of the beam along the shat axis of the ellipse. The focusing optics allows to focus the beam deep inside the sample, which is translated at a constant speed transversely to the writing beam direction. The influence of several experimental parameters (energy per pulse, slit width, processing depth) on the properties of the produced waveguides has been analyzed. The influence of the intrinsic properties of the material (refractive index, composition) has been analyzed by comparing results obtained in fused silica and Er:Yb co-doped phosphate glass. The results obtained show that this approach leads to the successful production of deep subsurface (up to 7 mm) waveguides with circular cross-sections. Preliminary results using chirped pulses in the phosphate glass suggest that temporal pulse shaping can be used as an additional parameter to optimize the guided mode symmetry. (c) 2007 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.