We have carried out a direct and differential imaging search for sub-stellar companions to \epsilon Indi A using the adaptive optics system NACO at the ESO VLT .
The observations were carried out in September 2004 with NACO/SDI as well as with NACO ’ s S27 camera in the H and K _ { s } filters .
The SDI data cover an area of \sim 2.8 \arcsec around \epsilon Indi A .
No detection was achieved in the inner neighbourhood down to 53 M _ { J } ( 5 \sigma confidence level ) at a separation \geq 0.4 \arcsec ( 1.45 AU ) and down to 21 M _ { J } for separations \geq 1.3 ” ( 4.7 AU ) .
To cover a wider field of view , observations with the S27 camera and a coronagraphic mask were obtained .
We detected a faint source at a separation of ( 7.3 \pm 0.1 ) \arcsec and a position angle of ( 302.9 \pm 0.8 ) ^ { \circ } .
The photometry for the candidate companion yields m _ { H } = ( 16.45 \pm 0.04 ) mag and m _ { K _ { s } } = ( 15.41 \pm 0.06 ) mag , respectively .
Those magnitudes and the resulting color ( H- K _ { s } ) = ( 1.04 \pm 0.07 ) mag fit best to a spectral type of L5 - L9.5 if it is bound . Observations done with HST/NICMOS by M. Endl have shown the source to be a background object .