Optimized pulsed sideband cooling and enhanced thermometry of trapped ions

Resolved-sideband cooling is a workhorse technique for a wide range of experiments with trapped ions, atoms, or micromechanical oscillators in the quantum regime. In this work, the authors provide both a novel approach to effectively optimize the cooling sequences using graph theory, as well as a technique to measure the ion temperature more accurately. The procedure should be applicable to any trapped-ion experiment.