Methods, systems, and devices for wireless communications are described. A user equipment (UE) may perform both a channel estimation and a non-linearity estimation (e.g., a power amplifier (PA) model estimation) on a demodulation reference signal (DMRS) transmitted by a base station. For example, the DMRS may include two portions that correspond to two peak-to-average power ratio (PAPR) values. Low PAPR values may enable the UE to perform the channel estimation, and high PAPR values may enable the UE to perform the PA non-linearity estimation. Accordingly, a first portion of the DMRS may correspond to a lower PAPR value, and the second portion of the DMRS may correspond to a higher PAPR value. In some examples, the base station may signal different parameters for each portion of the DMRS to the UE, or the UE may use fixed values to receive each portion of the DMRS.