Optical vortices and singularities due to interference in atomic radiation near a mirror.

We consider radiation emitted by an electric dipole close to a mirror. We have studied the field lines of the Poynting vector, representing the flow lines of the electromagnetic energy, and we show that numerous singularities and subwavelength optical vortices appear in this energy flow pattern. We also show that the field line pattern in the plane of the mirror contains a singular circle across which the field lines change direction.