Reversal of the dipole vortex in a negative index of refraction material

When a small particle is illuminated by a circularly polarized laser beam, the induced electric dipole moment rotates in a plane. The flow lines of the emitted electromagnetic energy are the field lines of the Poynting vector. When the particle is embedded in a dielectric, these field lines have a vortex structure, and the rotation in the vortex has the same orientation as the rotation direction of the dipole. We show that when the embedding medium is a negative index of refraction material, the direction of rotation in the vortex is reversed.