Poor polycarbonate release properties after stamping can scratch and snag the data bits during detachment of the replicate from the mold. This results in asymmetric pit/groove walls that can manifest as a stain on the replicate. This staining phenomenon is variously referred to as smearing, clouding, sticking, or ghosting and is undesirable more for cosmetic reasons than readability of the discs. Customers report an approximate 70% reduction of these stains on CD’s when plasma processing is used to remove the photo resist. Hard staining is reduced 10%, and clouding on DVD’s is eliminated entirely.