Ultra-broad-bandwidth spectral continuum generation in fibre Raman amplifier

Picosecond seeding pulses derived from a CW source and electroabsorption modulator operating at a 10 GHz repetition rate have been used with gain saturation and nonlinear conversion in a high power fibre Raman amplifier to provide a broad-band, 100 nm, spectral continuum with an average power > 1W.