A source of optical supercontinuum radiation

A source of optical supercontinuum radiation is disclosed, for generating blue-enhanced spectral components using a pump wavelength of substantially 1064 nm. The source comprises a microstructured optical fibre and a pump laser arranged to generate lasing radiation at the pump wavelength of substantially 1064 nm. The microstructured optical fibre comprises a core region and a cladding region which surrounds the core region and the pump laser is adapted to launch the lasing radiation at the pump wavelength into the core region of the microstructured optical fibre to excite the fundamental mode of the fibre. The fibre comprises a zero dispersion wavelength within +- 200 nm of the pump wavelength and can support a plurality of modes at the pump wavelength.