Glasses containing copper selenide nanoparticles (CuxSe) reveal an intense absorption band peaking at 1 um (1.24 eV). The transient bleaching and intensity-dependent transmission of silica glasses with CuxSe nanoparticles of different stoichiometry are studied with 1.08 um (1.15 eV) picosecond pulses. The bleaching relaxation time decreases with a shift in the absorption band maximum to the lower photon energies. The dependence of absorption on the input energy of the pulses is saturationlike at the beginning of the plateau at ∼40 mJ/cm2. Passive Q-switching of the Nd3+:KGd(WO4)2 laser at 1.067 um is realized with the CuxSe-doped glasses for different x.