Taking a snapshot of the triplet excited state of an OLED organometallic luminophore using X-rays

OLED technology beyond small or expensive devices requires light-emitters, luminophores, based on earth-abundant elements. Understanding and experimental verification of charge transfer in luminophores are needed for this development. An organometallic multicore Cu complex comprising Cu-C and Cu-P bonds represents an underexplored type of luminophore. To investigate the charge transfer and structural rearrangements in this material, we apply complementary pump-probe X-ray techniques: absorption, emission, and scattering including pump-probe measurements at the X-ray free-electron laser SwissFEL. We find that the excitation leads to charge movement from C- and P- coordinated Cu sites and from the phosphorus atoms to phenyl rings; the Cu core slightly rearranges with 0.05 Å increase of the shortest Cu-Cu distance. The use of a Cu cluster bonded to the ligands through C and P atoms is an efficient way to keep structural rigidity of luminophores. Obtained data can be used to verify computational methods for the development of luminophores.