Bruker and Siemens diffractometers have written .raw files for decades, in four different binary
versions, and most programs only read some of them. This page reads all four and writes the
pattern as a plain .xy file (2θ and intensity), plus .xye, CSV, Excel and XRDML, without
DIFFRAC.EVA.
How to convert Bruker RAW to XY
- Upload the
.rawfile. Its version is detected from the content (table below). - Leave X axis on As measured (2θ) for an ordinary
.xy, or pick d-spacing, Q or Cu-equivalent 2θ. - Download the
.xy: two space-separated columns without a header, the form Rietveld and phase-analysis programs expect.
| Header in the file | Written by |
|---|---|
RAW4.00 | DIFFRAC.SUITE (Commander, EVA) |
RAW1.01 | DIFFRAC plus, roughly 1997–2011 |
RAW2, RAW | DOS-era Diffrac-AT |
Files with several ranges
A .raw can hold several ranges, for example a non-ambient series measured at different
temperatures. The .xy contains the first range; a ZIP next to it has every range as its own
.xy and .xye, and the CSV and Excel files contain them all. For DIFFRAC plus files the
sample temperature of each range is read and shown in the range name, for example
Range 2 (90 °C).
What else is read
The preview lists what the file records: anode, Kα1, Kα2, their intensity ratio and Kβ, 2θ range, step, counting time per step, generator voltage and current, goniometer radius and the measurement date. The wavelengths matter if you convert to d-spacing, and they are written into the XRDML file so HighScore, GSAS-II or Profex know the radiation.
The .xye adds the standard uncertainty of each point as the square root of the counts, which
Rietveld programs use for weighting.
Accuracy
Results were compared with DIFFRAC's own text and .xy exports and an XCH .uxd export of the
same measurements (counts identical, angles to the exports' last digit), and with the GSAS-II
importers on 18 RAW files of versions 2 to 4.
Not a Bruker file?
STOE WinXPOW and Rigaku's binary format also use the .raw extension, with different
layouts. The converter identifies them and says it can't read them yet; export them as .xy from the
instrument software instead.
Newer Bruker measurements are saved as .brml: see BRML to XY.
More about what this tool reads and writes: XRD Pattern Converter (RAW, BRML, XRDML, RAS).