Level densities of iron isotopes and lower-energy enhancement of y-strength function

The neutron spectrum from the {sup 55}Mn(d,n){sup 56}Fe reaction has been measured at E{sub d} = 7 MeV. The level density of {sup 56}Fe obtained from neutron evaporation spectrum has been compared to the level density from Oslo-type {sup 57}Fe({sup 3}He, a{gamma}){sup 56}Fe experiment [1]. The good agreement supports the recent results [1, 8] including an availability of a low-energy enhancement in the {gamma}-strength function for iron isotopes. The new level density function allowed us to investigate an excitation energy dependence of this enhancement, which is shown to increase with increasing excitation energy.