Rare earth oxides are emerging candidates for gate oxide films as they have high dielectric constants as well as promising crystal and electronic structures. Lanthanum oxide is one of them but, even if many of its properties are known, no data exist in literature on its thermal conductivity. In this work, La2O3 thermal diffusivity has been measured by laser flash technique in the temperature range 300 K-1600 K and, from it, its thermal conductivity has been derived. Thermal diffusivity showed a decreasing trend from 2.7 * 10(-6) m(2)/s to 0.7 * 10(-6) m(2)/s while thermal conductivity decreases from 6 W/m/K to 2.1 W/m/K in the studied temperature range. Results have been applied to the thermal analysis of excimer laser annealing of La2O3/Si and a-Ge/La2O3/C-Si structures. (c) 2008 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.