The NIR emission of Cr³⁺can be enhanced by the energy transfer from Mn⁴⁺to Cr³⁺, which may provide an alternative way for improving the PL intensity of Cr³⁺-activated broadband NIR phosphors.

Intermolecular van der Waals (vdW) interactions are inherently present in molecular tunnel junctions fabricated with self-assembled monolayers (SAMs), but characterizing their effects is challenging; current state-of-the-art theory in molecular electronics lacks a dedicated property tailored for this purpose. Based on an analysis that goes beyond the traditional framework and is able to accurately reproduce I–V curves measured on benchmark molecular junctions, we show here that the half-width Λ of the molecular orbital (MO) mediating charge transport is a suitable property for quantifying these vdW effects. Our results demonstrate that vdW interactions prevail over MO–electrode interactions in determining Λ. This contradicts a common claim that the MO width originates from MO–electrode interactions. The present theoretical framework also allows us to solve a conundrum of molecular electronics, namely how and why, despite significant intra-SAM interactions, it is legitimate to describe molecular junctions formed by a bundle of molecules as independent single-molecule junctions in parallel.