Excitation of spin-1 states inEr166,168,170using bremsstrahlung

Some 40 states in ${}_{}{}^{166,168,170}{}_{}{}^{}\mathrm{Er}$, most of them previously unknown, have been excited using bremsstrahlung with ≤4.2 MeV endpoint energy. For all but three of these levels, the angular distribution of the resonantly scattered radiation favors the assignment of spin 1. For some of the strongly excited levels, linear polarization measurements have been performed. They indicate that these levels have positive parity. The branching ratios further characterize them as $K=1\mathrm{}$ excitations.