The scenario of longitudinal patterns described by the LLE constitutes a special case of the multimode instability of optical bistability previously discovered by Lugiato in collaboration with Rodolfo Bonifacio.

KFC, sometimes associated with Kerr cavity solitons,[11] have a bandwidth that can exceed an octave and repetition rates in the microwave to THz frequencies, which offers substantial potential for miniaturization and chip-scale photonic integration.

The rather idealized conditions assumed in the formulation of the LLE have been perfectly materialized by the spectacular technological progress in the field of photonics which has led, in particular, to the discovery of KFC.

An article of Lugiato with Claudio Oldano and Lorenzo Narducci[13] generalized the LLE, formulated for a system without population inversion, to the case of a laser near threshold.

In 2019 he has received the Quantum Electronics Award of IEEE Photonics Society [24] and a Doctorate in Science honoris causa from the University of Strathclyde in Glasgow.

His wife Vilma Tagliabue and himself have a son Paolo Lugiato, a General Manager who, married with Stefania Neri, has two children, Filippo and Valentina.