Recently, the possibility of obtaining non-harmonic unipolar electromagnetic pulses with a specific electric field strength’s dependence on time (e.g. a rectangular pulse) has been actively discussed in optics. Unipolar pulses have a nonzero electric area and a wide spectrum: from zero frequency up to the visible region. This could open up wide application of such pulses, for example, for faster and more efficient control of the quantum systems’ properties with a high temporal resolution compared to conventional bipolar multicycle pulses. In this paper, based on an approximate solution of the time dependent Schrödinger equation and a numerical solution of the equation system for the density matrix, we show the possibility of creating electromagnetically induced population density gratings in an atomic medium using a pair of unipolar rectangular attosecond light pulses that do not overlap in the medium. The formation of such gratings can be explained on the basis of the concept of ‘interference’ of electric pulse areas, recently introduced into optics.