Cavity sideband cooling of a single trapped ion

We report a demonstration and quantitative characterization of one-dimensional cavity cooling of a single trapped 88Sr+ ion in the resolved sideband regime. We measure the spectrum of cavity transitions, the rates of cavity heating and cooling, and the steady-state cooling limit. The cavity cooling dynamics and cooling limit of 22.5(3) motional quanta, limited by the moderate coupling between the ion and the cavity, are consistent with a simple model [Phys. Rev. A 64, 033405] without any free parameters, validating the rate equation model for cavity cooling.