Une manière efficace de contraindre la formation des planètes est l'étude des disques protoplanétaires. Les premières images de ces disques ont été obtenues dans les années 80 en infrarouge et en millimétrique. Ces images dévoilaient pour la première fois la morphologie de l'excès infrarouge vu dans les distributions spectrales d'énergies des étoiles jeunes. Depuis, de nets progrès ont été faits et, outre la détection directe de planètes, nous sommes capables de distinguer les perturbations que celles-ci pourraient engendrer dans ces disques. La région interne de ces disques, où la majorité des planètes sont détectées, est complexe car étant le théâtre de nombreux phénomènes encore mal contraints (sublimation de la poussière, vents, accrétion). Pour les étoiles jeunes les plus proches, observer ces régions revient à atteindre une résolution angulaire de l'ordre de la milliseconde d'arc, inatteignable avec un télescope monolithique. L'interférométrie optique permet de satisfaire cette contrainte. Cette technique consiste à combiner la lumière de deux télescopes ou plus afin de la faire interférer. Ces interférences permettent de contraindre la morphologie de l'objet observé à l'aide de modèles. Mais afin de comprendre les phénomènes en jeu il est nécessaire d'avoir une image indépendante de ces modèles. La reconstruction d'images est possible avec l'avènement récent d'interféromètres à 4 télescopes ou plus. Les premières images ont ainsi pu être reconstruites. Cependant, l'étoile centrale ne permet pas d'accéder facilement à l'image de l'environnement. Ma thèse a donc consisté à outrepasser cette difficulté en développant une méthode de reconstruction d'image adaptée à l'environnement protoplanétaire des étoiles jeunes. Elle consiste à séparer l'étoile centrale de l'image afin de reconstruire son environnement tout en prenant en compte la différence de température entre ces deux éléments. Grâce à cette méthode et aux instruments interférométriques du VLTI, j'ai pu reconstruire les images des premières unités astronomiques d'une douzaine d'étoiles de Herbig et de révéler leurs morphologies. J'ai ainsi pu appliquer une analyse géométrique originale afin de les caractériser. Enfin, j'ai analysé plus en détail un étoile particulière, MWC158, dont j'ai imagé la variabilité qui pourrait être interprétée comme une éjection de matière. Ma thèse démontre l'importance de la prise en compte des aspects chromatiques dans la reconstruction d'image ainsi que de l'adaptation de cette méthode à la spécificité des étoiles jeunes. / An effective way to understand the formation of planets is the study of protoplanetary disks. The first images of these disks were obtained in the infrared and the millimeter in the 80s. These images unveiled for the first time the morphology of the infrared excess seen in the spectral energy distributions of young stellar objects. Since then, significant progress has been made and, in addition to the direct detection of planets, we are able to distinguish the disruption they could cause in these disks. The inner region of these disks, where the majority of planets are found, is complex as being the scene of many phenomena still poorly constrained (dust sublimation, winds, accretion). For the closest young stars, observing these regions amounts to achieve an angular resolution of the order of a milliarcsecond, unattainable with monolithic telescopes. The optical interferometry can reach such a small angle. This technique consists in combining the light of two or more telescopes to make it interfere. These interferences can be used to constrain the morphology of the observed object by using models. But to understand the phenomena involved in the inner parts of young stellar objects, it is necessary to have an independent image. Image reconstruction is possible with the recent advent of interferometers with 4 or more telescopes. The first images were able to be rebuilt. However, the central star does not allow easy access to the environment morphology. The goal of my thesis was to bypass this difficulty by developing a method of image reconstruction which is adapted to the protoplanetary environment of young stars. It consists in separating the central star of the image to reconstruct its environment while taking into account the temperature difference between the two. With this method and the VLTI interferometric instruments, I reconstructed the images of the first astronomical unit of a dozen of Herbig stars and revealed their morphologies. I was able to apply a novel geometric analysis to characterize them. Finally, I have analyzed in more detail a particular star, MWC158, which I imaged the variability that could be interpreted as a matter ejection. My thesis demonstrates the importance of the inclusion of chromatic aspects in image reconstruction and adaptation of this method to the specific characteristics of young stars.

Parmi les 3000 exoplanètes détectées à ce jour, seule une cinquantaine ont été observées par imagerie dont l’avantage est de donner accès à la lumière des exoplanètes, ce qui ouvre la voie aux études spectrales de leur atmosphère et de leur surface. L’imagerie est aussi la seule méthode permettant d’étudier des exoplanètes situées dans les parties externes des systèmes stellaires ainsi que les disques circumstellaires, ce qui est fondamental pour comprendre les différentes étapes de la formation planétaires. Cependant, ces techniques doivent relever deux défis : la faible séparation angulaire qui existe entre une exoplanète et son étoile, ainsi que le contraste entre ces deux objets qui est de l’ordre de 10-4 dans l'infrarouge proche pour des Jupiter jeunes et de l'ordre de 10-10 dans le visible pour des planètes matures telles la Terre et Jupiter. Les instruments actuels utilisent des coronographes pour filtrer la lumière de l'étoile hôte et observer son voisinage ténu. Ils utilisent également des techniques actives qui compensent les effets des aberrations de surface d’onde pour minimiser le niveau des tavelures dans l'image finale. Couplés à des techniques d'imagerie différentielle, ces instruments ont permis la découverte et l'étude d'exoplanètes jeunes et massives, et de disques circumstellaires. Cependant, pour détecter des exoplanètes moins lumineuses et plus proches de leur étoile, les techniques d’imagerie font aujourd’hui l’objet d'une recherche active en laboratoire. Par exemple, l’Observatoire de Paris a développé le banc très haute dynamique (THD) pour tester et optimiser l’association de plusieurs techniques d’imagerie haute dynamique comme le four quadrants phase masque (FQPM) ou la self-coherent camera (SCC) qui est une technique d’analyse de surface d’onde en plan focal.Au début de ma thèse, mes travaux se sont concentrés sur le développement et l’étude de coronographes et d’analyseurs en plan focal pouvant travailler en larges bandes spectrales (typiquement 12,5 % à 40 %). J’ai testé sur le banc THD deux coronographes, le multi four-quadrant phase-mask (MFQPM) et le dual-zone phase-mask (DZPM). J’ai prouvé que le DZPM peut atteindre des contrastes de l’ordre de 4 10-8 pour des séparations angulaires comprises entre 7 et 16 λ/D et une bande spectrale de 250 nm centrée à 640 nm. J’ai également développé et testé une version de la SCC moins sensible au chromatisme appelée multireference self-coherent camera (MRSCC). En la combinant au DZPM, j’ai réussi à atteindre en boucle fermée des contrastes de l’ordre de 4.5 10-8 entre 5 et 17 λ/D pour une bande spectrale de 80 nm centrée à 640 nm. Ces deux résultats sont importants, car ils montrent qu'il est possible de construire un instrument qui atténue la lumière et contrôle activement les aberrations optiques directement à partir de l'image scientifique en large bande spectrale. À la fin de ma thèse, nous avons mis en place une collaboration visant à tester la SCC sur le télescope Hale du mont Palomar. Lors de deux missions auxquelles j’ai participé, nous avons prouvé que la SCC pouvait être associée avec un coronographe de type vortex ce qui n’avait jamais était fait auparavant. De plus, suite aux résultats obtenus sur source interne, nous prévoyons une démonstration sur ciel à l'automne 2016 / Among the 3000 exoplanets detected at this time, about 50 have been observed by direct imaging. The benefit of direct imaging is to give access to exoplanet light, paving the way for spectroscopic study of their atmospheres and surfaces. Moreover, direct imaging is also the only method that enables the study of exoplanets located in the outer parts of the stellar systems as well as circumstellar disks, which are fundamental to understand the different stages of planetary formation. However, there are two challenges : the small angular separation between an exoplanet and its star (less than a fraction of 1’’), and the contrast between the two objects which is of the order of 10-4 in near infrared for young Jupiter and of the order of 10-10 in visible light for Earth like planets. Existing instruments use coronagraphs to filter light from the host star and observe its tenuous neighborhood. They also use active techniques in order to minimize, in the final image, the brightness of speckles induced by wavefront aberrations. Coupled with differential imaging techniques, these instruments led to the discovery and study of young and massive exoplanets and circumstellar disks. However, to detect fainter exoplanets closer to their star, imaging techniques are now at the heart of an active research. For example, the Paris Observatory developed the banc très haute dynamique (THD bench) aiming at testing several high contrast imaging techniques and their associations as the four quadrants phase masque (FQPM) and the self-coherent camera (SCC) which is a focal plane wavefront sensor.At the beginning of my PHD, I mainly focused my work on the development and the study of coronagraphs and focal plane wavefront sensors able to work in broadband (between 12,5 % and 40 %). I tested on the THD bench two coronagraphs, the multi four-quadrant phase-mask (MFQPM) and the dual-zone phase-mask (DZPM). I proved that the DZPM is able to reach contrasts of 4 10-8 at angular separations ranging from 7 to 16 λ/D using a spectral bandwidth of 250 nm centered on 640 nm (40 %). I also developed and tested a new version of the SCC, less sensitive to chromatism, called the multireference self-coherent camera (MRSCC). By combining both DZPM and MRSCC, I reached in closed loop contrasts of 4.5 10-8 between 5 and 17 λ/D for a spectral bandwidth of 80 nm centered on 640 nm (12,5 %). These two results are important because they show that it is possible to build an instrument able to reduce the stellar light and actively control optical aberrations directly from a scientific image registered in a large spectral bandwidth which is requiered for the next generation of instruments. During my PHD, we also strated a collaboration to install the SCC at the Palomar Observatory. During two missions in which I took part, we proved, for the first time, that the SCC can be associated with a vortex coronagraph. Finally, based on these results, we plan to demonstrate the SCC concept on sky in the fall of this year

Despite the immense advances of science and medicine in recent years, several aspects regarding the physiology and the anatomy of the human brain are yet to be discovered and understood. A particularly challenging area in the study of human brain anatomy is that of brain connectivity, which describes the intricate means by which different regions of the brain interact with each other. The study of brain connectivity is deeply dependent on understanding the organization of white matter. The latter is predominantly comprised of bundles of myelinated axons, which serve as connecting pathways between approximately 10¹¹ neurons in the brain. Consequently, the delineation of fine anatomical details of white matter represents a highly challenging objective, and it is still an active area of research in the fields of neuroimaging and neuroscience, in general. Recent advances in medical imaging have resulted in a quantum leap in our understanding of brain anatomy and functionality. In particular, the advent of diffusion magnetic resonance imaging (dMRI) has provided researchers with a non-invasive means to infer information about the connectivity of the human brain. In a nutshell, dMRI is a set of imaging tools which aim at quantifying the process of water diffusion within the human brain to delineate the complex structural configurations of the white matter. Among the existing tools of dMRI high angular resolution diffusion imaging (HARDI) offers a desirable trade-off between its reconstruction accuracy and practical feasibility. In particular, HARDI excels in its ability to delineate complex directional patterns of the neural pathways throughout the brain, while remaining feasible for many clinical applications. Unfortunately, HARDI presents a fundamental trade-off between its ability to discriminate crossings of neural fiber tracts (i.e., its angular resolution) and the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) of its associated images. Consequently, given that the angular resolution is of fundamental importance in the context of dMRI reconstruction, there is a need for effective algorithms for de-noising HARDI data. In this regard, the most effective de-noising approaches have been observed to be those which exploit both the angular and the spatial-domain regularity of HARDI signals. Accordingly, in this thesis, we propose a formulation of the problem of reconstruction of HARDI signals which incorporates regularization assumptions on both their angular and their spatial domains, while leading to a particularly simple numerical implementation. Experimental evidence suggests that the resulting cross-domain regularization procedure outperforms many other state of the art HARDI de-noising methods. Moreover, the proposed implementation of the algorithm supersedes the original reconstruction problem by a sequence of efficient filters which can be executed in parallel, suggesting its computational advantages over alternative implementations.

Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) has long become one of the most powerful and accurate tools of medical diagnostic imaging. Central to the diagnostic capabilities of MRI is the notion of contrast, which is determined by the biochemical composition of examined tissue as well as by its morphology. Despite the importance of the prevalent T₁, T₂, and proton density contrast mechanisms to clinical diagnosis, none of them has demonstrated effectiveness in delineating the morphological structure of the white matter - the information which is known to be related to a wide spectrum of brain-related disorders. It is only with the recent advent of diffusion-weighted MRI that scientists have been able to perform quantitative measurements of the diffusivity of white matter, making possible the structural delineation of neural fibre tracts in the human brain. One diffusion imaging technique in particular, namely high angular resolution diffusion imaging (HARDI), has inspired a substantial number of processing methods capable of obtaining the orientational information of multiple fibres within a single voxel while boasting minimal acquisition requirements. HARDI characterization of fibre morphology can be enhanced by increasing spatial and angular resolutions. However, doing so drastically reduces the signal-to-noise ratio. Since pronounced measurement noise tends to obscure and distort diagnostically relevant details of diffusion-weighted MR signals, increasing spatial or angular resolution necessitates application of the efficient and reliable tools of image denoising. The aim of this work is to develop an effective framework for the filtering of HARDI measurement noise which takes into account both the manifold to which the HARDI signal belongs and the statistical nature of MRI noise. These goals are accomplished using an approach rooted in non-local means (NLM) weighted averaging. The average includes samples, and therefore dependencies, from the entire manifold and the result of the average is used to deduce an estimate of the original signal value in accordance with MRI statistics. NLM averaging weights are determined adaptively based on a neighbourhood similarity measure. The novel neighbourhood comparison proposed in this thesis is one of spherical neighbourhoods, which assigns large weights to samples with similar local orientational diffusion characteristics. Moreover, the weights are designed to be invariant to both spatial rotations as well as to the particular sampling scheme in use. This thesis provides a detailed description of the proposed filtering procedure as well as experimental results with synthetic and real-life data. It is demonstrated that the proposed filter has substantially better denoising capabilities as compared to a number of alternative methods.

Despite the immense advances of science and medicine in recent years, several aspects regarding the physiology and the anatomy of the human brain are yet to be discovered and understood. A particularly challenging area in the study of human brain anatomy is that of brain connectivity, which describes the intricate means by which different regions of the brain interact with each other. The study of brain connectivity is deeply dependent on understanding the organization of white matter. The latter is predominantly comprised of bundles of myelinated axons, which serve as connecting pathways between approximately 10¹¹ neurons in the brain. Consequently, the delineation of fine anatomical details of white matter represents a highly challenging objective, and it is still an active area of research in the fields of neuroimaging and neuroscience, in general. Recent advances in medical imaging have resulted in a quantum leap in our understanding of brain anatomy and functionality. In particular, the advent of diffusion magnetic resonance imaging (dMRI) has provided researchers with a non-invasive means to infer information about the connectivity of the human brain. In a nutshell, dMRI is a set of imaging tools which aim at quantifying the process of water diffusion within the human brain to delineate the complex structural configurations of the white matter. Among the existing tools of dMRI high angular resolution diffusion imaging (HARDI) offers a desirable trade-off between its reconstruction accuracy and practical feasibility. In particular, HARDI excels in its ability to delineate complex directional patterns of the neural pathways throughout the brain, while remaining feasible for many clinical applications. Unfortunately, HARDI presents a fundamental trade-off between its ability to discriminate crossings of neural fiber tracts (i.e., its angular resolution) and the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) of its associated images. Consequently, given that the angular resolution is of fundamental importance in the context of dMRI reconstruction, there is a need for effective algorithms for de-noising HARDI data. In this regard, the most effective de-noising approaches have been observed to be those which exploit both the angular and the spatial-domain regularity of HARDI signals. Accordingly, in this thesis, we propose a formulation of the problem of reconstruction of HARDI signals which incorporates regularization assumptions on both their angular and their spatial domains, while leading to a particularly simple numerical implementation. Experimental evidence suggests that the resulting cross-domain regularization procedure outperforms many other state of the art HARDI de-noising methods. Moreover, the proposed implementation of the algorithm supersedes the original reconstruction problem by a sequence of efficient filters which can be executed in parallel, suggesting its computational advantages over alternative implementations.

Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) has long become one of the most powerful and accurate tools of medical diagnostic imaging. Central to the diagnostic capabilities of MRI is the notion of contrast, which is determined by the biochemical composition of examined tissue as well as by its morphology. Despite the importance of the prevalent T₁, T₂, and proton density contrast mechanisms to clinical diagnosis, none of them has demonstrated effectiveness in delineating the morphological structure of the white matter - the information which is known to be related to a wide spectrum of brain-related disorders. It is only with the recent advent of diffusion-weighted MRI that scientists have been able to perform quantitative measurements of the diffusivity of white matter, making possible the structural delineation of neural fibre tracts in the human brain. One diffusion imaging technique in particular, namely high angular resolution diffusion imaging (HARDI), has inspired a substantial number of processing methods capable of obtaining the orientational information of multiple fibres within a single voxel while boasting minimal acquisition requirements. HARDI characterization of fibre morphology can be enhanced by increasing spatial and angular resolutions. However, doing so drastically reduces the signal-to-noise ratio. Since pronounced measurement noise tends to obscure and distort diagnostically relevant details of diffusion-weighted MR signals, increasing spatial or angular resolution necessitates application of the efficient and reliable tools of image denoising. The aim of this work is to develop an effective framework for the filtering of HARDI measurement noise which takes into account both the manifold to which the HARDI signal belongs and the statistical nature of MRI noise. These goals are accomplished using an approach rooted in non-local means (NLM) weighted averaging. The average includes samples, and therefore dependencies, from the entire manifold and the result of the average is used to deduce an estimate of the original signal value in accordance with MRI statistics. NLM averaging weights are determined adaptively based on a neighbourhood similarity measure. The novel neighbourhood comparison proposed in this thesis is one of spherical neighbourhoods, which assigns large weights to samples with similar local orientational diffusion characteristics. Moreover, the weights are designed to be invariant to both spatial rotations as well as to the particular sampling scheme in use. This thesis provides a detailed description of the proposed filtering procedure as well as experimental results with synthetic and real-life data. It is demonstrated that the proposed filter has substantially better denoising capabilities as compared to a number of alternative methods.

L'émergence d'une une nouvelle classe de matériaux, des isolants topologiques, a stimulé un vaste champ de recherche. Bismuth, un élément du groupe V du tableau périodique, est un des ingrédients clé d'une famille d'isolants topologiques. Pour des applications dans la technologie des composants électroniques, il est essentiel de maîtriser la préparation des matériaux en couches minces. Dans ce travail de thèse, nous avons étudié la croissance et la structure électronique de bismuth sur les surfaces (100) et (111) de semi-conducteur III-V InAs.Déposition de Bi sur la surface InAs(100) résulte en une auto-organisation de Bi qui forme des lignes de taille atomique. On montre que le bismuth interagit extrêmement faiblement avec la surface car la structure d'origine de la surface propre de l'InA(100) reste intacte. L'étude de la bande valence montre la présence d'états résonants fortement dépendants de l'énergie de photons et de la polarisation de la lumière, en cohérence avec la structure quasi unidimensionnelle de la surface.La spécificité de la surface InAs(111) est qu'elle a deux terminaisons différentes: par In, (face A) et par As, (face B). Les deux faces présentent des reconstructions différentes. Par la photoémission des niveaux de coeur nous avons montré une différence de réactivité chimique entre les faces A et B. La croissance de Bi sur la face A résulte en un monocristal de haute qualité pour les films à partir de 10 monocouches. Par contre, lors du dépôt de premières couches, la face B montre une croissance en îlots et un bon monocristal est obtenu seulement pour des films d'au moins de 50 monocouches.Pour la même face, A ou B, nous avons observé des différences de croissance plus subtiles entre les surfaces préparées soit par le bombardement ionique et des recuits soit par l'épitaxie par jets moléculaires.La photoémission résolue en angle a permit de caractériser la dispersion des bandes dans les films de Bi. La dispersion est tout à fait comparable au cristal massif de Bi. La dernière étape consistait à étudier la structure électronique d'un monocristal de Sb déposé sur le film de Bi.Les surfaces propres de InAs(111)A et InAs(111)B présentent une courbure de bande qui résulte en formation d'une couche d'accumulation d'électrons. En déposant le Bi sur ces surfaces, la couche d'accumulation est préservée, elle est même amplifié, car Bi agit comme le donneur dans l'InAs.La couche d'accumulation se traduit par un confinement quantique des électrons, mesurable par la photoémission résolue en angle.Mots clés :Structure électronique de surface, ARPES, semimétal, courbure de bande, Gaz-2D, Bismuth, Sb, InAs(111)A, InAs(111)B, puits quantique, surface Fermi, couches minces. / A new class of material is coming up, Topological Insulators, have opened a wide field of research. Bismuth, an element of group V of periodic table, is one of the key ingredient of this Topological Insulators family. With the aim of improving technological applications, especially the electronic compounds, it is of most importance to control the preparation of thin films materials. Within this Phd work, we studied the growth and Bismuth electronic structure on (100) and (111) semiconductor III-V InAs surfaces.Bi deposition on InAs(100) surface result of a Bi self-assembly which forms lines at atomic scale. We show Bi interact extremely weakly with the surface because the beginning structure of clean InAs(100) surface stay unharmed. The study of valence band sheds light on the existence of resonant states strongly photon energy dependent and also depend on the light polarization, consistent with almost one dimensional structure surface.InAs(111) surface specific feature is that it has both surface ending different : In ending, (face A) and As ending, (face B). The both faces pointed out distinguishable reconstructions. By the core-level photoemission we identified a chemical reactivity difference taking place between A and B faces. Bi growth on A-face tend to be a high quality monocrystal for those films from a thickness of 10 monolayers. On the other hand, during the deposition of first layers, the B-face show an island growth and a good monocrystal is obtained only available for films with 50 monolayers at least.For the same face, A or B, we have seen some growth discrepancies more subtle between prepared surfaces either by ionic bombardment and annealing (IBA) either by molecular beam epitaxy (MBE).The angular resolved photoemission allowed to identify the band dispersion inside of this Bi films. The dispersion is absolutely relative to the bulk Bi crystal. The final step involved the study of Sb monocrystal electronic structure deposited onto Bi film.Clean InAs(111)A and InAs(111)B surfaces indicate a band bending which result in the accumulation electron charge formation. With depositing Bi onto these surfaces, the accumulation layer would be kept, it is also increased, given that Bi acts as a donor-like in InAs. The accumulation layer is characterized by an electron quantum confinement, measurable by angle resolved photoemission.Keywords:Electronic structure surface, ARPES, semimetal, band bending effect, 2DEG, Bismuth, Sb, InAs(111)A, InAs(111)B, quatum wells, Fermi surface, thin films.

Cette thèse présente les résultats d'observations d'étoiles en rotation rapide menées sur le spectro-interféromètre AMBER du VLTI dans ses modes haute et moyenne résolutions spectrales. Les mesures effectuées sont les visibilités estimées sur trois bases simultanées, les phases différentielles en fonction de la longueur d'onde et des phases de clôtures avec, pour certaines nuits une bonne couverture du plan (u,v). Les données utilisées sont issues de plusieurs campagnes d'observation. Ces dernières étaient fortement dégradées par les défauts optiques d'AMBER, et affectés par des bruits classiques d'interférométrie optique à longue base en IR: défauts du détecteur, bruit de lecture, instabilités du suiveur de franges, ...etc. Leur analyse a nécessité la mise au point d'outils numériques de réduction spécifiques pour atteindre les précisions nécessaires à l'interprétation de mesures interférométriques. Pour interpréter ces mesures j'ai développé un modèle semi-analytique chromatique d'étoile en rotation rapide qui m'a permis d'estimer, à partir des phases différentielles; le degré d'aplatissement, le rayon équatorial, la vitesse de rotation, l'angle d'inclinaison, l'angle position de l'axe de rotation de l'étoile sur le ciel, la distribution de la température effective locale et de la gravité à la surface de l'étoile dans le cadre du théorème de von Zeipel. Les résultats concernant 4 étoiles massives de types spectraux B, A et F m'ont permis de les caractériser pour les mécanismes évoqués ci-dessus et d'ouvrir ainsi la perspective d'études plus systématiques d'objets similaires en étendant ultérieurement ces études à la relation photosphère-enveloppe circumstellaire. / This thesis presents the results of rapidly rotating stars observations conducted on the AMBER spectro-interferometer VLTI in its high average spectral modes and resolutions. The measurements are estimated on three simultaneous visibility bases, differential phases depending on the wavelength and closure phases, with good coverage of the (u, v) plane for some nights. The data used are from several observation campaigns. These were highly degraded by the optical defects of AMBER, and assigned by standard optical interferometry long base IR noises: defects of the detector, reading noise, fringes follower instabilities, ... etc. Their analysis required the development of digital reduction of specific tools to achieve the necessary details to the interpretation of interferometric measurements. In interpreting these measures I developed a chromatic semi-analytical model of rapidly rotating star that allowed me to estimate, from the differential phases; the degree of flattening, the equatorial radius, speed of rotation, angle of inclination, the position angle of the star rotation axis in the sky, the local distribution of the actual temperature and the gravity to the surface of the star within the von Zeipel theorem. The results for four massive stars of spectral type B, A and F have allowed me to characterize the mechanisms discussed above and thus open framework for more systematic studies of similar objects subsequently extending these studies to the relationship photosphere circumstellar envelope.

The existence of other habitable worlds and the possible development of life elsewhere in the Universe have been among mankinds fundamental questions for thousands of years. These interrogations about our origins and place in the Universe are today at the dawn of being answered in scientific terms. The key year was 1995 with the discovery of the first extrasolar planet orbiting around a solar-type star. About 400 extrasolar planets are known today and the possibility to identify habitable worlds and even life among them largely contributes to the growing interest about their nature and properties. However, characterizing planetary systems is a very difficult task due to both the huge contrast and the small angular separation between the host stars and their environment. New techniques have emerged during the past decades with the purpose of tackling these fantastic observational challenges. In that context, infrared interferometry is a very promising technique, since it provides the required angular resolution to separate the emission of the star from that of its environment. This dissertation is devoted to the characterization of extrasolar planetary systems using the high angular resolution and dynamic range capabilities of infrared interferometric techniques. The first part of the present work is devoted to the detection with current interferometric facilities of warm dust within the first few astronomical units of massive debris discs around nearby stars. In order to extend the imaging of planetary systems to fainter discs and to extrasolar planets, we investigate in a second step the performance of future space-based nulling interferometers and make a comparison with ground-based projects. Finally, the third part of this work is dedicated to the impact of exozodiacal discs on the performance of future life-searching space missions, the goal being to characterize extrasolar planets with sizes down to that of the Earth.

Malgré l’existence de modèles précis, notre connaissance des structures à petite échelle des galaxies est toujours limitée par le manque de preuves observationnelles. Les progrès instrumentaux ont permis d’atteindre une haute résolution angulaire à l’aide des nouvelles générations de télescopes, mais celle-ci est restreinte à un faible nombre de cibles extragalactiques à causes des besoins de l’Optique Adaptative (OA). En effet, afin de permettre une mesure efficace du front d’onde, l’OA requiert une source brillante et ponctuelle proche de la cible scientifique, typiquement en dessous de 30 . La partie principale de cette thèse porte sur l’analyse de la dizaine de parsecs centrale des Galaxies à Noyaux Actifs (NAG) à l’aide de différentes techniques observationnelles et numériques. Nous avons dans ce contexte développé un code de transfert radiatif nous permettant d’analyser les données polarimétriques. La seconde partie de ce travail est dédiée à l’analyse d’images en proche infrarouges de galaxies à flambée d’étoiles afin de contraindre les paramètres décrivant les super amas stellaires, jeunes cocons de poussière très massifs abritant une formation d’étoiles très soutenue, à l’aide de données obtenues avec l’instrument CANARY, démonstrateur de nouvelles technologies d’OA. / Despite having strong theoretical models, the current limitation in our understanding of the small-scale structures of galaxies is linked to the lack of observational evidences. Many powerful telescopes and instruments have been developed in the last decades, however one of these strongest tools, namely Adaptive Optics (AO), can only be used on a very limited number of targets. Indeed, for AO to be efficient, a bright star is required close to the scientific target, typically under 30 . This is mandatory for the AO systems to be able to measure the atmospheric turbulence and this condition is rarely satisfied for extended extragalactic targets such as galaxies. The main part of this thesis work consisted in going deeper in the analysis of the inner tens of parsecs of Active Nuclei (AGN) by combining different techniques to obtain and to interpret new data. In this context, we developed a new radiative transfer code to analyse the polarimetric data. A second part of my work was dedicated to a high angular resolution study of Super Star Clusters (SSC) in a new system, thanks to data obtained with the AO demonstrator CANARY instrument.