Core-excited states in the doubly magic ⁶⁸Ni and its neighbor ⁶⁹Cu

In deep-inelastic collisions of 8 MeV/nucleon ⁷⁰Zn projectiles with ¹⁹⁸Pt, we have found an 8+ isomer with T_1/2=23(1)ns at 4208 keV in ⁶⁸Ni; the vg_9/2 E2 effective charge was determined to be 1.5(1)e. In ⁶⁹Cu, a 19/2- isomer with T^1/2=22(1)ns at 3691 keV was identified and its decay data were calculated quite accurately by a parameter-free shell model calculation using empirical input parameters. Proton 2p- 1h excitation, fed by another T_1/2=39(6)ns isomer at 3827 keV, induces large collectivity in ⁶⁹Cu.