Figure 2: Capillary transmission at 5 TW peak input power versus time of arrival of the laser pulse after the onset of the discharge, and mode profiles of the input and output laser beam at 40 TW peak ...

The difference between 6.23 metres, the current world record in pole vaulting, and 6.24m is just one single centimetre. That's the width of a standard pencil. How hard can it be? Well, just ask Armand ...