  Ferroelectric materials hold great potential for alternative memories and
computing, but several challenges need to be overcome before bringing the ideas
to applications. In this context, the recently discovered link between electric
polarization and spin textures in some classes of ferroelectrics expands the
perspectives of the design of devices that could simultaneously benefit from
ferroelectric and spintronic properties. Here, we explore the concept of
non-volatile ferroelectric control of charge-to-spin conversion in semimetallic
WTe$_2$, which may provide a way for non-destructive read-out of the polar
state. Based on the first-principles simulations, we show that the
Rashba-Edelstein effect (REE) that converts electric currents into spin
accumulation switches its sign upon the reversal of the electric polarization.
The numerical values of REE, calculated for the first time for both bulk and
bilayer WTe$_2$, demonstrate that the conversion is sizable, and may remain
large even at room temperature. The ferroelectric control of spin transport in
non-magnetic materials provides functionalities similar to multiferroics and
allows the design of memories or logic-in-memory devices that combine
ferroelectric writing of information at low power with the spin-orbit read-out
of state.
