  We report the experimental evidence in support of room temperature
ferromagnetism in Ni doped 3C-SiC. Curie temperature is found to be > 350 K.
Temperature dependent Electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR) study reveals that
the valence state of Ni is 2+ and its environmental symmetry. A clear shift in
both XRD and Raman peak confirms the incorporation of Ni in the host lattice.
The variation in number of vacancies $V_{\mathrm{Si}}$, $V_{\mathrm{C}}$ and
the number of free electron due to doping is consistent with the change in
magnetization of the system. A direct correlation of ferromagnetic order (FM)
with F+ centers exchange mechanism is established. The temperature variation of
the anisotropic constant was determined using Law of Approach to Saturation
(LAS). It was found that effective magnetic anisotropic constant decreases with
increase in temperature. The EPR line width of the annealed sample increases
with decrease in temperature, whereas the integrated intensity decreases with
decrease in temperature. This could be due to incomplete quenching of orbital
angular momentum in Si$_{x}$Ni$_{1-x}$C. In addition to this, the orbital
degeneracy of fast relaxing impurity such as Ni in the cubic crystal field is
not completely removed. This results in the line width decrease with increase
in temperature.
