| Abstract
| - Context.Thanks to its proximity, α Centauri is an outstanding target for an imaging search for extrasolar planets. Aims.We searched for faint comoving companions to α Cen located at angular distances of a few tens of arcseconds, up to 2-3 arcmin. Methods.We obtained CCD images from the NTT-SUSI2 instrument in the Bessel V, R, I, and Z bands, and archive data from 2MASS. Results.We present a catalogue of the detected objects inside a 5.5 arcmin box around this star. A total of 4313 sources down to $m_V \approx 24$ and $m_I \approx 22$ were detected in the SUSI2 images. The infrared photometry of part of these sources has been extracted from the 2MASS images. Conclusions.No comoving companion to α Centauri were detected between 100 and 300 AU, down to a maximum mass of ≈15 times Jupiter. We also mostly exclude the presence of a companion more massive than 30 MJ between 50 and 100 AU.
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