Improved sensitivity for W-band Gd(III)-Gd(III) and nitroxide-nitroxide DEER measurements with shaped pulses.

•An arbitrary waveform generator was integrated into aW-band pulse-EPR spectrometer.•Chirp pulses with a bandwidth of up to 350MHz were applied as DEER pump pulses.•Significant increase in SNR was observed for Nitroxide and Gd(III) DEER.•For Gd(III) optimal chirp pulse set-up depends on the zero-field splitting.