The development of volume phase gratings written by two-wave-mixing in glass-like polymer storage materials based on poly (methylmethacrylate) and its thermostable derivative (copolymer with acrylic acid) with distributed phenanthrenequinone is investigated experimentally and theoretically. The maximal diffraction efficiency is considered in dependence on the grating period. The redistribution processes of the molecules are described with a one-dimensional diffusion model yielding the existence of a non-local response in the photopolymer layer, and the corresponding non-local response length of phenanthrenequinone is found experimentally.