Operationalizing Serendipity: Multi-Agent AI Workflows for Enhanced Materials Characterization with Theory-in-the-Loop

Abstract: The history of science is punctuated by serendipitous discoveries, where unexpected observations, rather than targeted hypotheses, opened new fields of inquiry. While modern autonomous laboratories excel at accelerating hypothesis testing, their optimization for efficiency risks overlooking these crucial, unplanned findings. To address this gap, we introduce SciLink, an open-source, multi-agent artificial intelligence framework designed to operationalize serendipity in materials research by creating a direct, automated link between experimental observation, novelty assessment, and theoretical simulations. The framework employs a hybrid AI strategy where specialized machine learning models perform quantitative analysis of experimental data, while LLMs handle higher-level reasoning. These agents autonomously convert raw data from materials characterization techniques into falsifiable scientific claims, which are then quantitatively scored for novelty against the published literature. We demonstrate the framework's versatility across diverse research scenarios, showcasing its application to atomic-resolution and hyperspectral data, its capacity to integrate real-time human expert guidance, and its ability to close the research loop by proposing targeted follow-up experiments. By systematically analyzing all observations and contextualizing them, SciLink provides a practical framework for AI-driven materials research that not only enhances efficiency but also actively cultivates an environment ripe for serendipitous discoveries, thereby bridging the gap between automated experimentation and open-ended scientific exploration.