The phrase "a sparse layer of" is correct and usable in written English.
It can be used to describe a thin or minimal covering of something, often in contexts related to materials, textures, or natural phenomena.
Example: "The desert was covered with a sparse layer of sand, barely concealing the rocky ground beneath."
Alternatives: "a thin layer of" or "a light coating of".
The Gorgonzola has a sparse layer of the pungent, salty cheese, which dresses the crust just right.
Powerful solar outbursts compress the field and force electrons to cascade down into the ionosphere, a sparse layer of the atmosphere hundreds of kilometers high.
Literature estimates of HSL production rates in V.fischeri indicate that such a sparse layer of individual cells, within a chamber that is flushed at this rate, would not be able to generate an endogenous HSL concentration above ~100 pM [ 20].
(a) Sparse layer-based representation (PSNR 29.62dB) with 1.18% of coefficients retained.
A columnar arrangement of pyramidal cells was not found, neither in layer III nor in layer V. Layer II of FG2 had a rather high cell density with a clearly delineable border to the cell sparse layer IIIa.
They are 4 to 9 m high, not very dense, and have a sparse ground layer.
Low management coffee plantations had a structurally and taxonomically diverse canopy of shade trees of mostly native species, high-management plantations had a sparse, single-layer shade canopy consisting primarily of planted Inga trees, while medium-management plantations had a shade canopy of intermediate diversity and structural complexity.
The intermediate zone (IZ) was identified as a cell-sparse layer situated basally to the SVZ/OSVZ.
Soak has a reedy, winsome voice, and her guitar playing is subdued and sparse, layering in just enough of an accompaniment to keep the loneliness of her songs at bay.
At P7, thionin staining revealed an obvious 3- or 4-layered microgyric cortex that comprised a superficial cell-sparse layer 1, a cell-dense layer 2, a deep cell-sparse layer 3, and sometimes a surviving cell layer 4 (Fig. 1 E).
