Thermal sensing fiber devices

A thermal sensing fiber comprising:

• a semiconducting element having a fiber length and characterized by a bandgap energy sufficient to produce a measurable change in thermally-excited electronic charge carrier population in the semiconducting element in response to a temperature change in an operational temperature range of the fiber;
• at least one pair of conducting electrodes in contact with the semiconducting element along the fiber length;
• and
• an insulator along the fiber length, wherein the semiconducting element, electrodes, and insulator are each characterized by a viscosity that is less than about 106 Poise while substantially maintaining individual material properties, at a common temperature.

A thermal sensing fiber comprising:

• a semiconducting element having a fiber length and characterized by a band gap energy sufficient to produce a measurable change in thermally-excited electronic charge carrier population in the semiconducting element in response to a temperature change in an operational temperature range of the fiber;
• at least one pair of conducting electrodes in contact with the semiconducting element along the fiber length;
• and
• an insulator along the fiber length, wherein the semiconducting element, electrodes, and insulator are disposed in a geometric relationship corresponding to a drawing preform of the fiber.

A thermal sensing fiber comprising:

• A semiconducting element comprising a semiconducting chalcogenide glass selected from the group consisting of GexAs40-xSeyTe60-y, where 10<x<20 and 10<y<15;
• As2S3;
• and As40Se60-xTex, the semiconducting element having a fiber length and being characterized by a band gap energy sufficient to produce a measurable change in thermally-excited electronic charge carrier population in the semiconducting element in response to a temperature change in an operational temperature range of the fiber;
• at least one pair of conducting electrodes in contact with the semiconducting element along the fiber length;
• and
• an insulator along the fiber length.

A thermal sensing fiber comprising:

• an optical transmission element having a fiber length;
• at least one metal-semiconductor-metal thermal sensing element along the fiber length;
• and
• an insulator along the fiber length;
• the optical transmission element, thermal sensing element, and insulator each characterized by a viscosity that is less than about 106 Poise while substantially maintaining individual material properties, at a common temperature.

A self-heat-monitoring fiber comprising:

• an insulator having a fiber length;
• and
• at least one metal-semiconductor-metal thermal sensing element along the fiber length and disposed at a position in a cross section of the fiber for sensing changes in temperature of the fiber;
• the insulator and thermal sensing element each characterized by a viscosity that is less than about 106 Poise while substantially maintaining individual material properties at a common temperature.