The phrase "a small drift" is correct and usable in written English.
It can be used to describe a minor deviation or change in direction, often in a physical or metaphorical context.
Example: "As we sailed through the calm waters, we noticed a small drift to the east that we needed to correct."
Alternatives: "a slight shift" or "a minor deviation."
Snow accumulated in a small drift on the bill of Raiders Coach Jon Gruden's visor.
There was a small drift of dispirited people trying hard to discover what it was all about.
During operation of the cyclotron heat dissipation of the RF system induces a small drift in iron temperature.
A transition radiation detector (TRD) prototype based on a single multiwire proportional chamber coupled with a small drift region was developed for the innermost part of the CBM-TRD subsystem.
The minimalist artists were rigorous about the cool visual terms in which their work was photographed, but here the sculptures invade each other's space, moving bodies ruin their pure lines and a cleaner arrives to remove a small drift of dust from the ordered precincts of a Morris piece.
The only visible difference between PET gantry ON and OFF conditions is a small drift in peak position.
Such positioning causes the ship to turn with a smaller drift angle and hence a larger turning radius.
A very small drift of the phase angle (0.2°) was observed in the basic conditions for the same measurement time.
In the electrical semiconductor simulation, the BSF, which arises from the heavy acceptor doping that creates the concentration gradient, is set atop the blaze grating in order to provide an extra small drift field for the collection of minority electrons.
This would result in an abnormally small drift velocity v(p) for p close to 100% and hence to an abnormally high N a (p) ~ 1/ v(p).
In particular, having experienced the first two excitations, it is practically unaffected by the sustained shaking of the L'Aquila record, resulting in a small total drift of 0.1 m (≈0.1% drift ratio).
