All fiber low noise supercontinuum source

A supercontinuum source, comprising:

• a source of light pulses having a certain wavelength and a known pulse duration and repetition rate;
• an optical fiber including a plurality of fiber sections each formed of highly non-linear fiber (HNLF) and having a zero dispersion wavelength that is within +/−200 nanometers (nm) of said certain wavelength, and each of the fiber sections has a different dispersion at said certain wavelength;
• each of the fiber sections has an effective area (Aeff) of between 5 μm2 and 15 μm2 at said certain wavelength, a dispersion slope of between −0.04 ps/nm2-km and 0.04 ps/nm2-km at said certain wavelength, and a nonlinear propagation coefficient (γ) of at least 5 W−1km−1;
• the fiber sections are operatively connected in series with one another from an input end of the fiber to an output end of the optical fiber;
• and
• the input end of the optical fiber is operatively connected to the source of light pulses.