Molecular sensing with supercontinuum radiation

Supercontinuum radiation sources are becoming ubiquitous in a large range of scientific applications. They offer enormous spectral bandwidth and high brightness ideal attributes for applications in molecular sensing, improving both speed and sensitivity of detection. There are challenges too, however: supercontinuum generation is an inherently noisy process and some wavelength regions of interest for molecular sensing are as of yet difficult to reach. We review the current state-of-the-art of molecular sensing with supercontinuum radiation and reflect critically on current challenges and future opportunities.