Tightly focused laser pulses that diverge or converge in underdense plasma can generate wake waves, having local structures that are spherical waves. Here we study theoretically and numerically relativistic spherical wake waves and their properties, including wave breaking. © 2012 American Institute of Physics.

We propose experiments on the collision of high intensity electromagnetic pulses with electron bunches and on the collision of multiple electromagnetic pulses for studying extreme field limits in the nonlinear interaction of electromagnetic waves. The effects of nonlinear QED will be revealed in these laser plasma experiments. © 2012 American Institute of Physics.