We developed a maskless plasma texturing technique for multicrystalline silicon cells using reactive ion etching that results in higher cell performance than that of standard untextured cells. Elimination of plasma damage has been achieved while keeping front reflectance to extremely low levels. Internal quantum efficiencies as high as those on planar cells have been obtained, boosting cell currents and efficiencies by up to 7% on evaporated metal and 4% on screen-printed cells. (C) 2002 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.