Benefiting from the unprecedented wavefront manipulation capability of metamaterials and metasurfaces, electromagnetic illusion technology has enabled customized tailoring of scattering characteristics with high precision. However, most existing electromagnetic illusion schemes are restricted to generating spurious scattering fields from empty space, suffering from inherent limitations such as narrow operating bandwidth and single application scenario, which severely hinder their applicability and reliability in complex electromagnetic environments. To overcome these bottlenecks, we propose an ultrathin meta-illusion for a target platform, which can simultaneously conceal the scattering signature of a real object and replicate that of a desired virtual target via amplitude and phase control of a metasurface. As a proof of concept, we design and fabricate a meta-illusion device that mimics the electromagnetic response of a scaled-down car, and experimentally validate its performance in the microwave regime. Experimental results show that with the target object loaded on the device, the meta-illusion achieves the correlation coefficients of near-field distributions and far-field patterns better than 86% and 85%, respectively, verifying the high fidelity of the proposed illusion scheme. This work provides a promising pathway for advanced electromagnetic camouflage, intelligent illusion engineering, and multifunctional metasurface systems.

Electromagnetic cloaking technology has evolved significantly through diverse approaches, with particular prominence in the field of electromagnetic transparent cloaking - most notably transformation optics. Although substantial progress has been made in the control of electromagnetic transparent cloaking, developing an effective method to achieve broadband transparent cloaking remains an urgent and core engineering physics challenge. Herein, theoretical derivation clarifies that the core phase compensation conditions required for a broadband transparent cloaking device exhibit dispersive characteristics. Furthermore, a novel method for achieving broadband transparent cloaking via dispersion engineering is proposed. Through the refined regulation of the phase dispersion properties of Huygens’ metasurfaces, a meta-cloak in constructed, which effectively realizes broadband (10.0-11.5 GHz, 13.95%) transparent cloaking for a dielectric cylinder, verifying the feasibility of the proposed method. Full-wave simulations are in good agreement with experimental results, confirming consistent near-field wavefront preservation and far-field scattering suppression, with phase front correlations cross-validated by experiments and theory. This work establishes a paradigm for broadband electromagnetic transparent cloaking, bridging critical gaps between broadband performance, scattering suppression, and scalable manufacturing for next-generation radar evasion and communication technologies.

Metasurfaces enable spatially programmable control of far-field wavefronts, while broadband molecular sensing relies on strong near-field confinement and enhanced light–matter interaction. The mismatch between far-field radiation and near-field localization makes their monolithic integration in a single shared aperture challenging. Here, we report an electrically tunable terahertz (THz) VO₂-based metasurface designed under temporal coupled mode theory (TCMT). The device adopts a metal–insulator–metal (MIM) architecture integrating a VO₂ microbridge and bowtie antenna, enabling bias-controlled switching between molecular fingerprint sensing and programmable wavefront manipulation in a shared aperture. At zero bias, the metasurface operates in an over-coupled regime, supporting a broadband low Q resonance over 0.8–1.2 THz with strong local field enhancement for molecular fingerprint sensing demonstration, serving as a passive near-field sensing mode. Under the metallic state condition induced by the VO₂ phase transition, the unit cell exhibits an approximately 180° reflection phase shift with nearly invariant amplitude. An electrically assisted programmable addressing implementation is proposed by exploiting the electrothermal switching capability of VO₂. Each unit cell thus functions as a 1-bit programmable meta-atom. By reconfiguring the spatial coding sequence, the device realizes anomalous reflection and beam splitting, which are further extended to refractive index sensing: thin analyte layers (<10 μm) are detected via anomalous reflection, whereas thicker layers are detected via beam splitting when the anomalous beam is suppressed. This constitutes a far-field active sensing mode. Both functionalities originate from the same over-coupled radiative loss mechanism: enhanced near fields enable fingerprint sensing, while the open radiative channel supports far-field refractive index sensing through programmed phase coding. This shared aperture design unifies near-field and far-field, passive and active sensing, offering a compact platform for THz integrated sensing and communication.