The photoresponse of stable N=82 nuclei below 10 MeV

High resolution photon scattering experiments were performed at the 10 MeV bremsstrahlung facility of the electron accelerator S-DALINAC at TU Darmstadt to investigate the semi-magic N=82 nuclei 138Ba, 140Ce, 142Nd and 144Sm. Energies and absolute strengths of dipole transitions below 10 MeV were determined in a model independent way. A concentration of electric dipole excitations exhausting up to 1% of the isovector E1 energy weighted sum rule is observed in all four nuclei around 6.5 MeV. Calculations in the framework of the Quasiparticle-Phonon Model (QPM) reproduce the gross experimental features.