Highly oriented aluminum nitride thin films were grown on sapphire (0001)-substrate by pulsed laser deposition technique. Characterization was done by X-ray-diffraction, elastic recoil detection analysis and Rutherford backscattering/channeling measurements. The epitaxial properties were studied as function of the substrate temperature and the deposition rate. An epitaxial relation to the sapphire substrate is found to be AIN [0001] \\ Al2O3 [0001] and AIN [1120] \\ Al2O3 [1010]. XRD-texture-analysis on films deposited at 850 degrees C shows a full width half maximum Delta omega of 0.13 degrees (rocking curve) and Delta(Psi) of 1.1 degrees tin-plane).