A method for marking a surface by controlled periodic nanostructures includes: a step (500) of coding an item of information in the form of an image including values representative of the coded information and a step (506 to 514) of marking, dot by dot, an area of the surface with a polarized laser beam to form oriented nanostructures on or in the surface, by modulating the laser beam's polarization for each marking dot according to the value of a dot of the image. In embodiments, during the marking step, a pulsed laser is utilized with a duration of less than 10×10−12 seconds and an element of polarizing the light coming from the laser source and reaching the surface, designed to polarize the light according to a polarization axis that can vary according to a signal received by the polarization element, is utilized.