The present invention relates to organic electroluminescent materials and devices. According to an aspect of the invention, a compound having a
metal planar tetradentate coordination configuration is disclosed. In the compound, the
metal M is Pt or Pd; the four coordination atoms are Z 1 , Z 2 , Z 3 , and Z 4 and each is selected from N, C, and O. The compound includes a
substituent R, and the atoms M, Z 1 , Z 2 , Z 3 , and Z 4 are used to define a first plane that passes through the
metal M and is positioned to have a minimum sum of the shortest distances to Z 1 , Z 2 , Z 3 , and Z 4 . At least one non-
hydrogen atom in R is located within a far circle of a cylinder that extends perpendicular to the first plane (i.e., the cylinder is a perpendicular cylinder); the far circle of the cylinder is a height h from a base circle; and the height h is in a range of 3.3 Å to 4.8 Å.