Structure and evolution of electric dipole strength in 204,206,208Pb below the neutron emission threshold

The electric dipole strength distributions below threshold in stable even-mass Pb isotopes have been extracted from photon scattering experiments at the superconducting Darmstadt electron linear accelerator S-DALINAC. Between 4 and 6.5 MeV excitation energy a resonance-like clustering of strength is observed. A strong evolution of a fragmentation of the dipole strength with opening the neutron shell is found. The fine structure of the strength is compared to microscopic quasiparticle-phonon model calculations that quantitatively reproduce the data quite well and explain the fragmentation of the dipole strength. Models suggesting the oscillation of excess neutrons with respect to an N≃Z core as a possible origin of low-lying E1 strength are critically examined.