We report on the realization of a hemispherical optical cavity with a finesse of F = 13 000 and sustaining inter-cavity powers of 10 kW, which we operate in a closed-cycle cryostat vacuum system close to 4 K. This was designed and built with an integrated radio-frequency Paul trap in order to combine optical and radio-frequency trapping. The cavity provides a power build-up factor of 2300. We describe a number of aspects of the system's design and operation, including low-vibration mounting and locking and thermal effects at high powers. Thermal self-locking in the high intracavity power regime was observed to enhance passive stability below 1 kHz. Observations made over repeated cool-downs over the course of a year show a repeatable shift between the ion trap center and the cavity mode.
© 2023 Author(s). All article content, except where otherwise noted, is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).