We investigated the properties of Ge-doped high-quality bulk GaN crystals with Ge concentrations up to 24 x 10(16) cm(-3) The Ge-doped crystals were fabricated by hydride vapor phase epitaxy with GeCl4 as the dopant source Cathodoluminescence imaging revealed no Increase in the dislocation density at even the highest Ge concentration with values as low as 34 x 10(6) cm(-2) The carrier concentration as determined by Hall measurement was almost identical to the combined concentration of Ge and unintentionally Incorporated Si The electron mobilities were 260 and 146 cm(2) V-1 s(-1) for n=3 3 x 10(18) and 3 35 x 10(16) cm(-3) respectively these values are markedly larger than those reported in the past for Ge-doped GaN thin films The optical absorption coefficient was quite small below the band gap energy It slightly increased with increase in Ge concentration Thermal conductivity estimated by the laser-flash method was virtually independent of Ge concentration maintaining an excellent value around 2 0 W cm(-1) K-1 Thermal expansion coefficients along the a- and m-axes were approximately constant at 50 x 10(-6) K-1 in the measured doping concentration range (C) 2010 Elsevier BV All rights reserved