The main topic of the thesis are inverse scattering problems of electromagnetic waves from periodic structures. We study first the direct problem and its numerical resolution using volume integral equation methods with a focus on the case of strongly singular integral operators and discontinuous coefficients. In a second investigation of the direct problem we study conditions on the material parameters under which well-posedness is ensured for all positive wave numbers. Such conditions exclude the existence of guided waves. The considered inverse scattering problem is related to shape identification. To treat this class of inverse problems, we investigate the so-called Factorization method as a tool to identify periodic patterns from measured scattered waves. In this thesis, these measurements are always related to plane incident waves. The outline of the thesis is the following: The first chapter is the introduction where we give the state of the art and new results of the topics studied in the thesis. The main content consists of five chapters, divided into two parts. The first part deals with the scalar case where the TM electromagnetic polarization is considered. In the second chapter we present the volume integral equation method with new results on Garding inequalities, convergence theory and numerical validation. The third chapter is devoted to the analysis of the Factorization method for the inverse scalar problem as well as some numerical experiments. The second part is dedicated to the study of 3-D Maxwell's equations. The fourth and fifth chapters are respectively generalizations of the results of the second and third ones to the case of Maxwell's equations. The sixth chapter contains the analysis of uniqueness conditions for the direct scattering problem, that is, absence of guided modes.