  We study both theoretically and experimentally the nonlinear interaction
between an intense surface acoustic wave and a two-dimensional electron plasma
in semiconductor-piezocrystal hybrid structures. The experiments on hybrid
systems exhibit strongly nonlinear acousto-electric effects. The plasma turns
into moving electron stripes, the acousto-electric current reaches its maximum,
and the sound absorption strongly decreases. To describe the nonlinear
phenomena, we develop a coupled-amplitude method for a two-dimensional system
in the strongly nonlinear regime of interaction. At low electron densities the
absorption coefficient decreases with increasing sound intensity, whereas at
high electron density the absorption coefficient is not a monotonous function
of the sound intensity. High-harmonic generation coefficients as a function of
the sound intensity have a nontrivial behavior. Theory and experiment are found
to be in a good agreement.
