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Distributed Bragg Reflectors and optical microcavities are multilayer optical structures with spectral properties that are intrinsically sensitive to external perturbations. With nanometer to micrometer dimensions and near instantaneous optical response, these structures show significant potential as the basis for meso-scale time-resolved diagnostics that can be used to probe the dynamic behavior of meso-scale heterogeneous materials. In order to characterize the optical and mechanical behavior of the multilayer structures, a coupled computational-experimental approach is followed. A theoretical analysis of the spectral response of the structures to dynamic loading is shown, along with computational simulations illustrating the observable spectral effects of 1D shock compression. Results from laser driven shock loading of prototype multilayer designs demonstrate clearly observable spectral shifts closely correlated with shock pressure, indicating that the magnitude of dynamic loading can be directly inferred from the altered spectral response of the multilayer structure. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]