Authentication and identification are critical to information security systems. Traditionally, these processes are achieved with the use of secret keys that are stored in electronic memories, or with difficult-to-clone systems (e.g., fingerprints or holograms). The persistent development of technology, however, means that the barrier to cloning such systems is becoming lower. Moreover, counterfeiting, device spoofing, and identity fraud are formidable problems in all markets. The ideal solution, therefore, would be to produce a nano-fingerprint from the atomic arrangement of a structure embedded within a device. By shrinking down to the atomic scale, the challenge of cloning the system becomes as difficult as possible, i.e., the density of secure information is maximized and the number of resources required to read the fingerprint is minimized.