We present detailed statistical investigations of the irregular fast pulsing behavior present in the dynamics of semiconductor lasers with delayed optical feedback operating in the low-frequency fluctuation and coherence collapse regimes. We demonstrate that the probability density distributions of the laser intensity on a picosecond time scale are essentially independent of the number of optical modes involved in the laser emission, using two complementary high-resolution experimental measurement systems: a high-bandwidth sampling digitizer and a single-shot streak camera. The experimental results are supported by numerical studies using the singlemode Lang-Kobayashi equations, as well as a multimode extension of the model. Furthermore, we also demonstrate that gain saturation and coexisting attractors can cause substantial qualitative changes of the probability density distribution. ͓S1050-2947͑99͒09507-4͔ PACS number͑s͒: 42.55. Px, 42.60.Mi, 42.65.Sf

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