Recent Results from the Excitation of Dipole States at the HIγS Facility

High‐sensitivity studies of E1 and M1 excitations observed in the 138Ba(γ,γ′) reaction at energies below the neutron emission threshold have been performed. The electric dipole character of the so‐called “pygmy” mode was experimentally verified for excitations from 4.0–8.6 MeV. The fine structure of the M1 “spin‐flip” mode was observed for the first time in N = 82 nuclei.