A search of the pygmy resonance in ⁶⁸Ni was made using the virtual photon technique. The experiment was carried out using the radioactive beam ⁶⁸Ni at 600 AMeV impinging on a Au target. The ⁶⁸Ni beam, produced at GSI with fragmentation of ⁸⁶Kr at 900 AMeV on a ⁹Be target, was separated by the Fragment Separator and the gamma-rays produced at the interaction with the Au target were detected with the RISING set-up including also the HECTOR array. The measured gamma-ray spectra show a peak centered at approximately 11 MeV, whose intensity can be explained in term of an enhanced strength of the dipole response function (pygmy resonance). A pygmy structure of this type was also predicted by different models for this unstable neutron rich nucleus.

PACS numbers: 24.30.Cz, 24.10.Pa, 24.60.Dr, 27.60.+j