Multiphoton experiments on SF 6 in a molecular beam are performed utilizing cw CO 2 waveguide lasers. In this paper the emphasis will be on the non-spectroscopic aspects. (i) The saturation dip in one-photon transitions is measured. (ii) To investigate which rotational states participate in the multiphoton process, an intra cavity laser is used as a pump laser, followed by a waveguide laser. Only hot band transitions seem to be depleted. (iii) With the aid of two counter-propagating CO 2 waveguide laser beams, new spectral regions were entered to investigate two-photon transitions. In this way it is also possible to investigate three- and more-photon transitions, because of the higher intensity (two lasers) and smaller intermediate detunings (two colours).