Manipulating the insulator–metal transition in strongly correlated materials has attracted a broad range of research activity due to its promising applications in, for example, memories, electrochromic windows and optical modulators^1,2. Electric-field-controlled hydrogenation using ionic liquids^3,4,5,6 and solid electrolytes^7,8,9 is a useful strategy to obtain the insulator–metal transition with corresponding electron filling, but faces technical challenges for miniaturization due to the complicated device architecture. Here we demonstrate reversible electric-field control of nanoscale hydrogenation into VO₂ with a tunable insulator–metal transition using a scanning probe. The Pt-coated probe serves as an efficient catalyst to split hydrogen molecules, while the positive-biased voltage accelerates hydrogen ions between the tip and sample surface to facilitate their incorporation, leading to non-volatile transformation from insulating VO₂ into conducting H_xVO₂. Remarkably, a negative-biased voltage triggers dehydrogenation to restore the insulating VO₂. This work demonstrates a local and reversible electric-field-controlled insulator–metal transition through hydrogen evolution and presents a versatile pathway to exploit multiple functional devices at the nanoscale.

操纵强相关材料中的绝缘体-金属转变吸引了广泛的研究活动，因为它在存储器、电致变色窗和光学调制器等方面具有广阔的应用前景^1,2。^{使用离子液体3,4,5,6}和固体电解质^7,8,9的电场控制加氢是获得具有相应电子填充的绝缘体-金属转变的有用策略，但由于复杂的设备架构。_{在这里，我们展示了纳米级氢化成 VO 2}的可逆电场控制使用扫描探针进行可调谐绝缘体-金属过渡。Pt 涂层探针可作为分解氢分子的有效催化剂，而正偏电压加速尖端和样品表面之间的氢离子以促进它们的结合，从而导致从绝缘 VO ₂非挥发性转变为导电 H _x VO ₂ . 值得注意的是，负偏电压触发脱氢以恢复绝缘VO ₂。这项工作通过析氢证明了局部和可逆的电场控制的绝缘体-金属转变，并提供了一种在纳米尺度上开发多种功能器件的通用途径。