  We discuss the role of Bose enhancement of the dipole matrix element in
photoassociation, using stimulated Raman adiabatic passage as an example. In a
nondegenerate gas the time scale for coherent optical transients tends to
infinity in the thermodynamic limit, whereas Bose enhancement keeps this time
scale finite in a condensate. Coherent transients are therefore absent in
photoassociation of a thermal nondegenerate gas, but are feasible if the gas is
a condensate.
