I like the last article there:
"Scientists and engineers from Picatinny Arsenal have demonstrated that an electric discharge can go through a laser beam. The laser beam is self-focusing due to the high laser intensity of 50 gigawatts,"
50 gigawatts! 50,000,000,000 (like gigabyte follows megabyte?).
P=IV, so 50,000,000,000W/120V = 416.8 megaAmps. Not really practical for powering from house current, eh?
I imagine a bank of capacitors, big step up transformer, huge wires & insulators ...