According to one embodiment, a method for manufacturing a substrate for a discrete track recording media, the method includes forming an imprint resist layer on a substrate, imprinting, on the imprint resist layer, a stamper formed with patterns of protrusions and recesses corresponding to recording track zones and servo zones to transfer the patterns of protrusions and recesses to the imprint resist layer, removing the stamper from the imprint resist layer, and diffusing liquefied CO.sub.2 in a process chamber set at a pressure of 2 to 5 atm, diffusing liquefied H.sub.2O in the process chamber set at a pressure of 0.01 to 1 atm, or diffusing a reactive gas selected from a group consisting of liquefied CF.sub.4, CHF.sub.3, SF.sub.6, and C.sub.2F.sub.6 in the process chamber set at an arbitrary pressure, to jet spray the liquefied gas onto a surface of the substrate.