Superradiant lasers based on atomic ensembles exhibiting ultra-narrow optical transitions can emit light of unprecedented spectral purity and may serve as active atomic clocks. We consider two frequency-detuned active atomic clocks, which are coupled in a cascaded setup, i.e. as master & slave lasers, and study the synchronization of the slave to the master clock. In a setup where both atomic ensembles are coupled to a common cavity mode such synchronization phenomena have been predicted by Xu et al. [Phys. Rev. Lett. 113, 154101 (2014)] and experimentally observed by Weiner et al. [arXiv:1503.06464 (2015]. Here we demonstrate that synchronization still occurs in cascaded setups but exhibits distinctly different phase diagrams. We study the characteristics of synchronization in comparison to the case of coupling through a common cavity. We also consider synchronization through a classical channel where light of the master laser is measured phase sensitively and the slave laser is injection locked by feedback and compare to the results achievable by coupling through quantum channels.

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A generalized model of the continuously generating superradiant Raman laser is considered. The model includes competing individual and cooperative atomic processes arising from the interaction of atoms with external light fields. We show that proper selection of the model parameters leads to cooperative effects in the atomic active laser medium. We calculate the steady state values of the atomic polarization and two-atom correlations. Using the quantum regression theorem, we determine the spectral characteristics of the collectively emitted light. We use cumulant expansion to estimate the higher-order correlations between atoms. Keywords: superradiant laser, correlated states of atoms, cooperative effects, cumulant expansion.