These ceramic spheres will be used in a lab experiment. I'd like to have 3 nanometer diameter spheres but could live with 10 nm if necessary. We are building a prototype device and they will be used as spacers in a component of the device, placed between two very closely adjacent gold plates. The plates are a few cm in diameter. They are gold mirror surfaces, optically flat to 1/10 wavelength of light (~40 nm) and will be brought into very close proximity to each other. The spacers will assure proper spacing.

For the purposes of handling the ceramic powder and to be able to easily thin it out to one layer thick it will be suspended in an inert liquid polymer which will then be thin coated on the gold surface, and the plates brought into contact. In the experiment the plates will have a low voltage electrical charge on them.

The spacer material used is of little importance provided it is an electrical nonconductor that has no inherent electrical charge.

Randomness in the size of the spheres is not an issue. The spacing of the plates will simply be the result of the diameter of the largest sphere. Smaller spheres in the admixture will not interfere with it.

The compressive force on the spheres will be small. They're merely acting as spacers with no weight on them as such.

What is available to conform to these specifications?