Results on spontaneous Raman spectroscopy of alkaline-earth tungstate cryst
als are presented. The frequency of the modes active in stimulated Raman sc
attering (SRS) modes was found to increase and their width to decrease with
increasing cation radius and mass in the series of alkaline-earth (Ca, Sr,
Ba) tungstates, High peak values of the Raman scattering cross section for
barium and strontium tungstate crystals - new media offering promise for S
RS - were predicted and observed in the experiments. Laser experiments on t
he SRS threshold showed that the SRS gain for the barium tungstate crystal
was close to the record value observed for the barium nitrate crystal, whic
h is extensively used in SRS.