超连续光谱是一种具有极宽带宽的光源，一般利用高峰值功率的超短脉冲通过非线性材料来产生，例如利用飞秒激光脉冲通过光子晶体光纤可以获得覆盖整个可见光波段的连续光谱。

在光学中，当一系列非线性效应作用在泵浦光上，使原始泵浦光在光谱上极大地展宽，例如利用微结构光纤，就得到了超连续谱。其结果是一个平滑的连续谱线，见图1.对于超连续谱的展宽量并没有明确的解释；甚至有研究声称展宽60nm仍称其为超连续谱。对于用于定义光源带宽的光谱平坦性也没有定论，论文作者们使用了5dB到40dB之间或以上的任意值。另外，随着很多作者在七十、八十、九十年代使用选择性的短语描述他们的连续性，超连续谱其本身才在这个世纪得到广泛承认。

In optics, a supercontinuum is formed when a collection of nonlinear processes act together upon a pump beam in order to cause severe spectral broadening of the original pump beam, for example using a microstructured optical fiber. The result is a smooth spectral continuum (see figure 1 for a typical example). There is no definitive explanation of how much broadening constitutes a supercontinuum; however researchers have published work claiming as little as 60 nm of broadening as a supercontinuum. There is also no agreement on the spectral flatness required to define the bandwidth of the source, with authors using anything from 5 dB to 40 dB or more. In addition the term supercontinuum itself did not gain widespread acceptance until this century, with many authors using alternative phrases to describe their continua during the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s.