We have used theoretical models to give an account of the photoinduced reorientation of the ate-dye molecules in polymers and the related macroscopic effects that are diffraction efficiency and photoinduced birefringence. Measurements have been carried out for three doped polymers presenting different behaviors according to the writing intensity and the sample temperature. Interpolation of the experimental data reveals that the limiting factor for the amplitude of the diffraction efficiency is principally the temperature of the samples, whereas then the sensitivity of the compounds seems to be only driven by the nature of the dye.