An application of dielectric multilayer mirrors for chirp compensation is reviewed on femtosecond pulse generation from a colliding-pulse mode-locked (CPM) dye laser and a Kerrlens mode-locked (KLM) Ti:sapphire laser. The principle of a chirp compensation technique, the design of chirp compensation cavity-mirrors, and the experimental results for their femtosecond pulse lasers are described in detail. Furthermore, we review a theoretical proposal of ultafast optical limiting and switching applications of nonlinear dielectric multilayer elements as one-dimensional photonic band gap materials, and an experimental study of tunneling of femtosecond optical pulses through photonic band gaps.
