  Pulsed electron paramagnetic resonance spectroscopy of the photoexcited,
metastable triplet state of the oxygen-vacancy center in silicon reveals that
the lifetime of the ms = \pm1 sub-levels differ significantly from that of the
ms =0 state. We exploit this significant difference in decay rates to the
ground singlet state to achieve nearly ~100% electron spin polarization within
the triplet. We further demonstrate the transfer of a coherent state of the
triplet electron spin to, and from, a hyperfine-coupled, nearest-neighbor 29Si
nuclear spin. We measure the coherence time of the 29 Si nuclear spin employed
in this operation and find it to be unaffected by the presence of the triplet
electron spin and equal to the bulk value measured by nuclear magnetic
resonance.
