Abstract
We reinvestigate the importance of octahedral splitting in multiple photon absorption by SF6 gas in view of the recent measurement and analysis of the 3ν3 spectrum by Kildal. A simple anharmonic oscillator model which includes rotational effects to first order is an excellent approximation to the more complicated octahedral splitting model. Indeed it is the rotational splittings which are essential to the physics of multiple photon absorption modeling.