Robust Quantum Entanglement Generation and Generation-plus-Storage Protocols with Spin Chains

Reliable quantum communication/processing links between modules are a necessary building block for various quantum processing architectures. Here we consider a spin chain system with alternating strength couplings and containing three defects that impose three domain walls between topologically distinct regions of the chain. We show that -- in addition to its perfect state transfer properties -- an entangling protocol can be implement in this system, with optional localisation and storage of the entangled states. We demonstrate both numerically and analytically that, given a suitable initial product-state injection, the natural dynamics of the system produces a maximally entangled state at a given time. We present detailed investigations of the effects of fabrication defects analyzing random static disorder, both in the diagonal and off-diagonal terms of the system Hamiltonian. Our results show that the entangled state formation is very robust against perturbations of up to $\sim10\%$ the weaker chain coupling. We propose a further protocol which manipulates the chain in order to localise and store each of the entangled qubits. The engineering of a system with such characteristics would thus provide a useful device for quantum information processing tasks involving the creation and storage of entangled resources.