Nearly penalty-free, <4 ps supercontinuum Gbit/s pulse generation over 1535-1560 nm

Nearly penalty-free <4 ps supercontinuum WDM pulses are generated at 6.3 Gbit/s over 1535-1560 nm for the first time using a 200 nm superbroadened supercontinuum in an optical fibre pumped by 1.7 W, 3.3 ps, 1542 nm short pulses from an Er/sup 3+/-doped fibre ring laser.