The physical, chemical and optical properties of barium nitrate crystal are considered from the point of its application for development of solid state Raman lasers and shifters. The described growth procedure has shown the possibility to fabricate laser elements with high optical homogeneity. Using Raman spectroscopic investigation of vibronic modes in barium nitrate crystal the linewidth broadening and frequency shift were measured. This proved that internal Raman modes in barium nitrate crystal have weak couplings with lattice phonons that results in high gain of Stimulated Raman Scattering (SRS).