An arrangement for providing pulse compression at the output of an optical continuum source - advantageously used in spectral slicing applications - includes a section of higher-order mode, HOM, fiber (20) configured to exhibit a predetermined dispersion in at least a portion of the predetermined wavelength range and an effective area greater than 40 µm 2 , the dispersion of the HOM fiber selected to compensate for the dispersion introduced by the optical continuum source (1012). The HOM fiber generates a compressed pulse output therefrom. An input mode converter (24) is used to convert the created continuum from the fundamental mode associated with the conventional continuum sources to the higher-order mode(s) supported by the HOM fiber used to perform pulse compression. A bandpass filter (22) is used to limit the bandwidth of the continuum signal to that associated with both the efficient conversion range of the mode converter and desired dispersion characteristic of the HOM fiber.