PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide an organic electroluminescence element which shows improved light emission efficiency and reduction in an initial drive voltage and which is excellent in stability with little changes in emission characteristics with time.SOLUTION: The organic EL element includes a pair of electrodes and at least one organic functional layer including a light-emitting layer containing a metal complex, on a substrate. When the metal complex and a ligand of the metal complex are subjected to structural optimization by molecular orbital calculation using B3LYP as a functional and 6-31G(d) or SDD as a basis function, electron density distributions of HOMO (highest occupied molecular orbital) and LUMO (lowest unoccupied molecular orbital) thus obtained are substantially separated from each other; and a center metal of the metal complex is zinc or a group-2 element.
