We apply the spin-fermion model to study the normal state and pairing instability in electron-doped cuprates near the antiferromagnetic QCP. Peculiar frequency dependencies of the normal state properties are shown to emerge from the self-consistent equations on the fermionic and bosonic self-energies, and are in agreement with experimentally observed ones. We argue that the pairing instability is in the $d_{ x^{ 2}-y^{ 2}}$ channel, as in hole-doped cuprates, but theoretical $T_{ c}$ is much lower than in the hole-doped case. For the same hopping integrals and the interaction strength as in hole-doped materials, we obtain $T_{ c}\sim10$K at the end point of the antiferromagnetic phase. We argue that a strong reduction of $T_{ c}$ in electron-doped cuprates compared to hole-doped ones is due to critical role of the Fermi surface curvature for electron-doped materials. The $d_{ x^{ 2}-y^{ 2}}$-pairing gap $\Delta(\mathbf{ k},\omega)$ is strongly non-monotonic along the Fermi surface. The position of the gap maxima, however, does not coincide with the hot spots, as the non-monotonic $d_{ x^{ 2}-y^{ 2}}$ gap persists even at doping when the hot spots merge on the Brillouin zone diagonals.
Categories: cond-mat.supr-con cond-mat.str-el