  Density functional calculations are performed to investigate the room
temperature ferromagnetism in GaN:Cu nanowires (NWs). Our results indicate that
two Cu dopants are most stable when they are near each other. Compared to bulk
GaN:Cu, we find that magnetization and ferromagnetism in Cu doped NWs is
strongly enhanced because the band width of the Cu td band is reduced due to
the 1D nature of the NW. The surface passivation is shown to be crucial to
sustain the ferromagnetism in GaN:Cu NWs. These findings are in good agreement
with experimental observations and indicate that ferromagnetism in this type of
systems can be tuned by controlling the size or shape of the host materials.
