Although progress has been made in the ab initio simulation of lattice dyna
mics in semiconducting crystals, information about the relaxation of nonequ
ilibrium lattice vibrations remains incomplete. This work studies the relax
ation times of room-temperature thermal phonons through measurements of the
rmal conduction along monocrystalline silicon films of thickness down to 74
nm. A repetitive oxidation and etching process ensures that the purity and
crystalline quality of the films are comparable with those of bulk samples
. Phonon-interface scattering reduces the thermal conductivity by up to 50%
at room temperature. The data indicate that the effective mean-free path o
f the dominant phonons at room temperature is close to 300 nm and thus much
longer than the value of 43 nm predicted when phonon dispersion is neglect
ed. This study indicates that a broad variety of lattice transport characte
ristics for bulk silicon can be obtained through measurements on carefully
prepared silicon nanostructures. The present data are also valuable for the
thermal simulation of silicon-on-insulator (SOI) transistors. (C) 1999 Ame
rican Institute of Physics. [S0003-6951(99)04820-2].