Abstract
We have developed a new method to study the order-to-chaos transition in rotational nuclei. Energy correlations between successive γ-rays are used to determine the average complexity of the levels and thereby the ratio of the interaction between levels to the level spacing. γ-Rays from fusion reactions, leading to 168,169,170Yb nuclei, were measured with Gammasphere, and the measured ratios span the range from nearly fully ordered to nearly fully chaotic.