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.