We study complexes of finite complete intersection dimension in the derived category of a local ring. Given such a complex of complexity c, we prove that the thick subcategory it generates contains complexes of all possible complexities at most c. In particular, we show that such a complex is virtually small, answering a question raised by Dwyer, Greenlees and Iyengar.
Homology, Homotopy and Applications, Vol. 11 (2009), No. 2, pp.49-54.