  We employ ab-initio electronic structure calculations and study the magnetic
properties of CaN and SrN compounds crystallizing in the rocksalt structure.
These alkaline-earth metal mononitrides are found to be half-metallic with a
total spin magnetic moment per formula unit of 1.0 $\mu_B$. The Curie
temperature is estimated to be 480 K for CaN and 415 K for SrN well-above the
room temperature. Upon small degrees of doping with holes or electrons, the
rigid-band model suggests that the magnetic properties are little affected.
Finally we studied for these alloys the effect of deformation taking into
account tetragonalization keeping constant the unit cell volume which models
the growth on various substrates. Even large degrees of deformation only
marginally affect the electronic and magnetic properties of CaN and SrN in the
rocksalt structure. Finally, we show that this stands also for the zincblende
structure. Our results suggest that alkaline-earth metal mononitrides are
promising materials for magnetoelectronic applications.
