The invention relates to a strontium metaborate birefringent crystal as well as a preparation method and an application. The crystal has the chemical formula of SrB2O4 and the molecular weight of 173.24, belongs to the orthorhombic crystal system, has the space group of Pbcn and cell parameters as follows: a is equal to 12.00(5) angstrom, b is equal to 4.33(7) angstrom, c is equal to 6.58(4) angstrom and Z is equal to 4. The crystal grows with a melt method, a flux method, a crucible descending method or a heat exchange method. The strontium metaborate birefringent crystal is a negative biaxial crystal with the permeating range of 170-3,300 nm and the birefringence between 0.10 and 0.35. The crystal can be applied to infrared-visible-ultraviolet-deep ultraviolet bands, can be used for producing polarizing beam splitter prisms such as Glan prisms and Wollaston prisms and optical components such as optoisolators and light beam displacers and has important applications in optics, laser photolithography and optical communication.