We have investigated the static and dynamic electrooptical effects of adding an alignment layer derived from a chiral liquid crystal having SmC* and N* phases to the standard polymer alignment layer in antiferroelectric liquid crystal cells. Our results show that the added layer reduces the relaxation time of the liquid crystal, the threshold voltage and the dynamic range required to generate a full greyscale. The electrooptical response of materials was tested using a 7 level waveform, and the relaxation was studied using a novel memory test.