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Assuming that it may actually work.
Detonation & pre-ignition are caused by an increase in pressure causing a temp. spike in the combustion mixture. Older engines with a single spark plug located on one side of the cylinder is more suseptible to this than an engine with a centrally located spark plug. Large engines (old airplane engines) benefit from having multiple spark plugs to help even out flame front propigation. This allows the compression ratio to be increased, thereby increasing engine efficiency.
If they split the laser beam like they are talking about, they could effectively have say 5 or 6 "spark plugs". This should allow for an increase in compression ratio without experiencing pre-ignition.
If the laser works & uses no more power than spark plugs, I'd believe you could get an efficiency increase.
Don
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