Post growth multilayer instabilities of a certain periodic Gd 2 O 3 /SiO 2 multilayer systems have been investigated using scanning probe force–distance spectroscopy and optical spectrophotometric techniques. In the present work, we have noticed a strong correlation between the force spectroscopic results and the spectral properties of multilayer thin films, although measurement techniques and operating principles are quite different. From the experimental analysis, it was quite evident that the instability process, which starts during the nucleation and growth stage in thin films, continues to persist at a much longer time scale under post growth conditions. During this study it has been noticed that the elastic properties of the constituent thin films, the layer geometry and the bilayer thickness have strong correlation in trickling the multilayer instabilities. Such aspects also have strong interconnections with the morphological and viscoelastic changes. It is also noticed that most of the instabilities results cannot only be explained through elastic nature of the material alone. Instead, total number of layers, the layer structures, morphological changes, corresponding stiffness and the adhesion properties of the multilayer contribute substantially to these phenomena.