  We report the observation of ferromagnetism at over 900K in Cr-GaN and Cr-AlN
thin films. The saturation magnetization moments in our best films of Cr-GaN
and Cr-AlN at low temperatures are 0.42 and 0.6 u_B/Cr atom, respectively,
indicating that 14% and 20%, of the Cr atoms, respectively, are magnetically
active. While Cr-AlN is highly resistive, Cr-GaN exhibits thermally activated
conduction that follows the exponential law expected for variable range hopping
between localized states. Hall measurements on a Cr-GaN sample indicate a
mobility of 0.06 cm^2/V.s, which falls in the range characteristic of hopping
conduction, and a free carrier density (1.4E20/cm^3), which is similar in
magnitude to the measured magnetically-active Cr concentration (4.9E19/cm^3). A
large negative magnetoresistance is attributed to scattering from loose spins
associated with non-ferromagnetic impurities. The results indicate that
ferromagnetism in Cr-GaN and Cr-AlN can be attributed to the double exchange
mechanism as a result of hopping between near-midgap substitutional Cr impurity
bands.
