%0 Journal Article %J Physical Review B %D 2015 %T Optical Control of Donor Spin Qubits in Silicon %A Michael Gullans %A J. M. Taylor %X We show how to achieve optical, spin-selective transitions from the ground state to excited orbital states of group-V donors (P, As, Sb, Bi) in silicon. We consider two approaches based on either resonant, far-infrared (IR) transitions of the neutral donor or resonant, near-IR excitonic transitions. For far-IR light, we calculate the dipole matrix elements between the valley-orbit and spin-orbit split states for all the goup-V donors using effective mass theory. We then calculate the maximum rate and amount of electron-nuclear spin-polarization achievable through optical pumping with circularly polarized light. We find this approach is most promising for Bi donors due to their large spin-orbit and valley-orbit interactions. Using near-IR light, spin-selective excitation is possible for all the donors by driving a two-photon $\Lambda$-transition from the ground state to higher orbitals with even parity. We show that externally applied electric fields or strain allow similar, spin-selective $\Lambda$-transition to odd-parity excited states. We anticipate these results will be useful for future spectroscopic investigations of donors, quantum control and state preparation of donor spin qubits, and for developing a coherent interface between donor spin qubits and single photons. %B Physical Review B %V 92 %P 195411 %8 2015/11/11 %G eng %U http://arxiv.org/abs/1507.07929 %N 19 %R 10.1103/PhysRevB.92.195411