We report on the generation of a spectral-temporal patterned supercontinuum (SC) that is a train of ultrashort pulse bunches with an ultra-broadband spectrum changing from pulse to pulse in a controllable manner. The SC is attained in a highly nonlinear silica fiber pumped by a specially designed mode-locked fiber laser that can generate homogeneous soliton molecules (SMs) consisting of similar high-amplitude dissipative solitons and heterogeneous SMs consisting of interleaved high- and low-amplitude pulses. The temporal distance between the spectrally broadened pulses can be adjusted in a wide range from 5 to 170 ps by tuning the laser. The SC spans from 1350 to beyond 1700 nm. It is formed by Raman-shifted solitons in the long-wavelength region and dispersive waves in the short-wavelength region, whose wavelength shift regularly varies from pulse to pulse depending on the amplitudes of the pump pulses. By selecting different parts of the SC spectrum it is possible to obtain different patterned optical pulse trains. It was shown that the pulse duration in the SMs can be decreased below 100 fs due to soliton-effect compression directly in the highly-nonlinear fiber.
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