Tetranuclear gold(I) fluorinated amidinate complexes have been synthesized and their photophysical properties and structures described. DFT calculations were carried out to illustrate how a minor change in the ligand resulted in a loss of emission in the perfluorophenyl amidinate complex compared with nonfluorinated phenyl amidinate complexes reported previously. The fluorinated complexes reported here [Au(ArN)(2)C(H)](4) (1, Ar = 4-FC6H4; 2, 3,5-F2C6H3; 3, 2,4,6-F3C6H2; 4, 2,3,5,6-F4C6H) emit in the blue-green region at 470, 1, 478, 2, 508, 3, and 450 nm, 4, by excitation at ca. 375 nm at room temperature with nanosecond lifetimes. The emissions observed at 77 K in the solid state show structured emission for complexes 1 and 2, with a vibrational spacing of ca. 1200 and 1500 cm(-1), corresponding to the vibrational modes of the amidinate ligand. The pentafluorophenyl derivative 5, Ar = C6F5, shows no photoluminescence in the solid state nor in the solution. This result is different from results in which the pentafluorophenyl group is attached to a phenylpyridine ligand in an Ir(III) complex and other organics. This quenching appears to be related to a nonradiative de-excitation process caused by the pi pi*-pi sigma* crossover in the excited state of the pentafluorophenyl amidinate ligand. With increasing numbers of fluorine atoms, there is a progressive decrease in the contribution of the amidinate ligands to the corresponding HOMO orbital. There also is a slight decrease in the ligand contribution to the LUMO with increased numbers of fluorine atoms and an exchange of the character of the orbitals of the gold centers.