There's actually a laser lift mechanism I've seen employed by small scale test craft. It involves firing a laser at the reflective bottom of a specially shaped craft. I believe it actually ignited the air under it causing propulsion, but it's been a long time since I saw it.

The proof of concept actually worked but the power increase needed for anything at scale was quite high. Also, the laser was not cohesive enough after atmospheric scattering to provide lift to a significant height during the PoC phase.

I'm not 100% sure if this is what the previous post is referring to, and it's possible that the technology has advanced since I first heard of it which was at least a decade back.