The study of the angular distribution of photon plus jet events in pp collisions at √S =7 TeV with the Compact Muon Solenoid (CMS) detector is presented. The photon is restricted to the central region of the detector (|η| < 1.4442) while the jet is allowed to be present in both central and forward regions of CMS |η| < 2.4). Dominant backgrounds due to jets fragmenting into neutral mesons are accounted for through the use of a template method that discriminates between signal and background. The angular distribution, |η*|, is defined as the absolute value of the difference in η between the leading photon and leading jet in an event divided by two. The angular distribution ranging from 0-1.4 was examined and compared with next-to-leading order QCD predictions and was found to be in good agreement.

This document, prepared to obtain the "Habilitation à Diriger des Recherches", is a compendium of the photon-related analysis activities I carried on within ATLAS in the past four years and a half. The activities I will describe can be broadly classified into three categories: optimization and/or in situ measurement of photon-related performance, measurements of the cross sections of Standard Model processes producing prompt photons, and searches (leading to discovery!) of a Standard Model Higgs boson decaying to final states containing photons.