The present invention relates to a photochemical method for manufacturing nanometrically surface-decorated substrates, i.e. the creation of periodic and aperiodic patterns of highly ordered inorganic nanostructures on a substrate. This method is based on the selective photochemical modification of a self-assembled monolayer of metal compound loaded polymer core-shell systems on widely variable substrates. Light exposure through an appropriate mask causes selective chemical modification of the polymer core shell system. By subsequently placing the substrate in an appropriate chemical solution that eradicates the non-modified polymer, the pattern given by the used mask is reproduced on the surface. Finally, the remaining organic matrix is removed and metal salt is transformed to the single metal or metal oxide nanodots by means of gas plasma treatment.