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A fully kinetic 2D axisymmetric Particle-in-Cell (PIC) model is used toexamine the effects of background facility pressure on the plasma transport andpropulsive efficiency of magnetic nozzles. Simulations are performed for alow-power (150 W class) cathode-less radio-frequency (RF) plasma thruster,operating with xenon, between background pressures up to 10$^{-2}$ Pa andaverage electron discharge temperatures of 4 - 16 eV. When the electrontemperature within the near-plume region reaches 8 eV, a decisive reduction inperformance occurs: at 10$^{-2}$ Pa, in-plume power losses surpass 25% of thedischarge energy flux. Given that the ionization energy for Xe is 12 eV, the 8eV threshold indicates that a consistent percentage of electrons has energyenough to trigger ionization. On the other hand, when the temperature is belowsuch threshold, the primary collisions are charge-exchange and inelastic ionscattering, and the power loss remains less than 10%. It is established thatlosses in the considered HPT are significant if the facility pressure isgreater than 10$^{-3}$ Pa, at absorbed powers larger than 130 W. At the nominal150 W, this results in a 15% thrust reduction. When facility pressure is takeninto consideration over ideal vacuum simulations, numerical error is reduced to<30% when compared to experimental thrust measurements at 10$^{-3}$ Pa.

Fully kinetic study of facility pressure effects on RF-source magnetic nozzles