Photopolymers are interesting materials to obtain high-quality performance for the volume holographic data storage with a low noise and high diffraction efficiency. In this paper, the recording of holographic diffraction gratings with a spatial frequency of approximately 1940lines/mm in photopolymerizable epoxy resin materials is experimentally demonstrated. Diffraction efficiency near 92% and an energetic sensitivity of 11.7 x 10(3) cm(2)/J are achieved by designing the proper structure of matrix and also optimizing photopolymer compositions. The effect of photopolymer compositions on the fundamental optical properties is also discussed. (c) 2007 Optical Society of America.