Аннотация:The influence of 60 Co-irradiation accompanied by low-temperature treatment on AlGaAs/GaAs chips of 835 ± 25 nm superluminescent diodes (SLD) is addressed. It is shown that irradiation of potentially unreliable chips with latent defects in active 20-nm layer increases optical power degradation rate during the subsequent burn-in test. The possible cause of enhanced degradation of potentially unreliable chips during a long-term operation or gamma-ray irradiation is the presence of local defects, which can be rearranged into larger clusters commensurate with the active layer. The decrease in the degradation rate during the burn-in test for irradiated reliable chips probably caused by the mechanical stresses relaxation and its homogenization. A method for rejecting unreliable chips using gamma irradiation processing is proposed.