  We investigate the demagnetization dynamics of the cycloidal and sinusoidal
phases of multiferroic TbMnO$_3$ by means of time-resolved resonant soft x-ray
diffraction following excitation by an optical pump. Using orthogonal linear
x-ray polarizations, we suceeded in disentangling the response of the
multiferroic cycloidal spin order from the sinusoidal antiferromagnetic order
in the time domain. This enables us to identify the transient magnetic phase
created by intense photoexcitation of the electrons and subsequent heating of
the spin system on a picosecond timescale. The transient phase is shown to be a
spin density wave, as in the adiabatic case, which nevertheless retains the
wave vector of the cycloidal long range order. Two different pump photon
energies, 1.55 eV and 3.1 eV, lead to population of the conduction band
predominantly via intersite $d$-$d$ transitions or intrasite $p$-$d$
transitions, respectively. We find that the nature of the optical excitation
does not play an important role in determining the dynamics of magnetic order
melting. Further, we observe that the orbital reconstruction, which is induced
by the spin ordering, disappears on a timescale comparable to that of the
cycloidal order, attesting to a direct coupling between magnetic and orbital
orders. Our observations are discussed in the context of recent theoretical
models of demagnetization dynamics in strongly correlated systems, revealing
the potential of this type of measurement as a benchmark for such complex
theoretical studies.
