Excitation- and state-transfer through spin chains in the presence of spatially correlated noise

We investigate the influence of environmental noise on spin networks and spin chains. In addition to the common model of an independent bath for each spin in the system we also consider noise with a finite spatial correlation length. We present the emergence of new dynamics and decoherence-free subspaces with increasing correlation length for both dephasing and dissipating environments. This leads to relaxation blocking of one spin by uncoupled surrounding spins. We then consider perfect state transfer through a spin chain in the presence of decoherence and discuss the dependence of the transfer quality on spatial noise correlation length. We identify qualitatively different features for dephasing and dissipative environments in spin-transfer problems.