Abstract
Density functional theory was applied to study the electronic and magnetic coupling of Cr-doped InN, in which magnetic configurations have been investigated. We found that the calculated ferromagnetic stabilizing energy is strongly linked to the Cr-Cr distance. The local magnetic moment of Cr is
2.3
μ
B
, and it weakly depends on the Cr-Cr distance. The coupling between the Cr
d
and the N
p
states is found to be the origin of ferromagnetism in the InCrN system. The generalized gradient approximation-1/2 correction procedure increases the polarization of InCrN, making this system a robust half-metallic ferromagnetic alloy.