A review of recent results in the field of short and half-cycle electromagnetic pulses is presented. The sources of their electric area, i.e., the integral of the electric field strength over time, which is the main characteristic of extremely short pulses, are brought to light. The formation of unipolar and quasi-unipolar pulses under the influence of low-cycle pulses on a quantum dot and on nested quantum wells is analyzed. A number of potential applications of unipolar electromagnetic pulses are discussed.

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Keywords: unipolar electromagnetic pulses, electric area of pulses, Maxwell's equations, holography of fast processes PACS: 41.20.Jb, 41.75.Ht, 42.65.Re (all) DOI: 10.3367/UFNe.2024.07.039718 URL: https://ufn.ru/en/articles/2024/11/h/ Citation: Rosanov N N, Arkhipov M V, Arkhipov R M "Extremely short and unipolar light pulses: state of the art" Phys. Usp. 67 (11) (2024) Received: 11th, March 2024, revised: 5th, July 2024, accepted: 17th, July 2024 Оригинал: Розанов Н Н, Архипов М В, Архипов Р М «Предельно короткие и униполярные импульсы света: современное состояние проблемы» УФН 194 1196–1206 (2024); DOI: 10.3367/UFNr.2024.07.039718