A method for identifying a photoluminescent material that, after excitation with excitation light, emits emission light having different wavelengths is disclosed. The method includes irradiating the photoluminescent material with the excitation light, detecting a temporal intensity curve of at least two emission light components having different wavelengths, which components are emitted from the photoluminescent material as a result of the excitation, calculating initial intensities of the emission light components at a common time, determining at least one intensity parameter by correlating the calculated initial intensities, determining at least one decay parameter value for each of the emission light components from a time progression of their intensity and identifying the photoluminescent material using the intensity parameter(s) and the decay parameter values. A device configured to identify the photoluminescent material includes an excitation light source, a receiving apparatus, an evaluation apparatus and a control apparatus that performs the photoluminescent material identifying method.