We investigate the nucleation of superconductivity in a superconducting Al
strip under the influence of the magnetic field generated by a current-carrying
Nb wire, perpendicularly oriented and located underneath the strip. The
inhomogeneous magnetic field, induced by the Nb wire, produces a spatial
modulation of the critical temperature T_c, leading to a controllable
localization of the superconducting order parameter (OP) wave function. We
demonstrate that close to the phase boundary T_c(B_ext) the localized OP
solution can be displaced reversibly by either applying an external
perpendicular magnetic field B_ext or by changing the amplitude of the
inhomogeneous field.Comment: 10 pages, 6 figure