I just read the technical article they published about this in the journal Optics Express.
They were using a femosecond-terrawatt laser , with a 3 cm beamwidth at 800nm (IR), fired from a mountaintop.
Even then, they couldn't get a full lightning strike, due to the plasma channels lifespan (only ~1 microsecond) being way too short to effectively work. They therefore concluded that their experiment was simply a "step" towards being able to create laser-controlled lightning.
They were using a femosecond-terrawatt laser , with a 3 cm beamwidth at 800nm (IR), fired from a mountaintop.
Even then, they couldn't get a full lightning strike, due to the plasma channels lifespan (only ~1 microsecond) being way too short to effectively work. They therefore concluded that their experiment was simply a "step" towards being able to create laser-controlled lightning.